From Warehouse to Boardroom: Darryl Clark’s Story

Darryl didn’t start at the top. While attending Hofstra University, he took a part-time job working in the warehouse. That entry-level role quickly became the starting line for an impressive career progression, fueled by curiosity, discipline, and a relentless commitment to growth.

Clark moved from loading trucks and repairing products to assistant warehouse manager. He started attending industry trainings on his own time, then landed an inside sales role. Driven by a desire to excel, he studied sales classics by Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, and others. Eventually, he rose through project management, outside sales, and leadership, culminating in his current executive position. His story is a masterclass in self-motivation and self-improvement.

Find Your Purpose and Passion

What keeps a person moving forward, even when the work isn’t glamorous? According to Darryl Clark, the secret starts with wanting it for yourself.

“You have to want it. You really do. You have to find your purpose and your passion in life.”

Clark sees too many people chasing someone else’s expectations without taking an inventory of what they truly enjoy or excel at. Lasting motivation, in his view, comes from figuring out your strengths—and then finding a way to build a business around them. Without that self-understanding, it’s tough to summon up daily drive.

Discipline Beats Motivation

Motivation isn’t about feeling pumped up all the time. Consistency, Clark stresses, comes down to discipline: “doing what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

Even when warehouse work wasn’t his dream, Clark made a conscious decision to be the best he could at each level, seeking ways to add value and grow. That mindset paved the way for every promotion and new opportunity down the line.

Surround Yourself With Fuel

The environment matters. Clark credits his mother for introducing him to motivational icons like Les Brown early in life. He also devoured books, treating each one like downloading a new operating system into his mind.

“When you read those books, you’re downloading the consciousness of the author into you. As long as you take it and apply it, that’s the key.”

Knowledge, he insists, only becomes power when put into action. Whether attending seminars, reading daily, or listening to outside voices, Clark’s approach is to fill his mental tank with fuel that pushes him forward.

Lead by Example and Invest in Others

True motivation isn’t selfish. Clark holds himself accountable by striving to be a role model for his family, especially his children. He wakes up early, exercises, and reads daily, so his kids can witness—directly or indirectly—the routines that lead to success. The ripple effect is real.

“You want to be an example and you have to be motivated to be that example of what success looks like, of what hard work looks like.”

Clark measures impact not only by career wins but by how his discipline transfers on to others. That includes the thousands of people who receive his daily 6am audio message, designed to jumpstart their day on a positive note.

The Formula for Staying Motivated

The themes from this conversation point to a clear set of habits:

• Take inventory of your passions and strengths. Let your genuine interests drive your path.
• Develop daily self-discipline. Don’t rely on feeling motivated, instead rely on consistent action.
• Pursue constant self-development. Read, listen, and learn from experts and mentors.
• Hold yourself accountable; not just for your own sake, but for the example set for others.
• Surround yourself with motivated, positive people. Energy is contagious.

Top performers aren’t just born, they’re made, day by day, by the choices and routines they commit to. Motivation isn’t a burst. It’s a habit.

This episode is a reminder: Living with purpose, investing in yourself, and building consistent disciplines aren’t just paths to personal achievement. They set off a chain reaction for those around you. And that’s real success.

As Mark Hunter wrapped up: “When you surround yourself with excellence and you invest in other people, it’s amazing at what can happen and what will happen. That’s how you get motivated. That’s how you stay motivated.”

Mark Hunter :
How do you get and stay motivated? Hey, we all know in sales, more important than ever. Well, more important than just life. You gotta be motivated. With me today, Darrell Clark. And the show begins right now.

Meridith Elliott Powell :
You’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now, here’s your host.

Mark Hunter :
Okay, so the question is, what do you do to get motivated? What do you do to stay motivated? With me today, Darrell Clark. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Darryl Clark :
Thank you, Mark. It’s a pleasure to be on your show. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Mark Hunter :
Hey, I want to jump in right now because I want you to tell the audience a little bit about your story and then kind of what you do because you put out a video every morning, an audio every morning. Morning at 6, I get it at 6am and it’s amazing. It’s a powerful motivation message. We’re going to put a link in there because I want other people to be able to sign up to get it from you. But tell the audience your story because.

Darryl Clark :
Sure, yeah. So my story. Well, right now I work for Wallace and his associates. I’m the chief operating officer and partner and also the chief motivation officer and affectionately known as the creative thought scientist. And so I’m at the, I guess you can call it the top of the food chain now. But I wasn’t always at the top of the food chain, Mark. My career started while I was going to Hofstra University. I started to work here at Wallace Ennis part time to, you know, help support the family.

Darryl Clark :
And I was working in the warehouse here at Wallace Ennis. And to make, to kind of go quickly, I worked in the warehouse, saw what kind of products and everything that, that we were shipping and receiving. So I, the forklifts, I was packing the, packing the equipment, loading them onto the shelves. I was opening up the boxes, repairing things. When things went wrong, I was shipping things out. And one thing led to another, another opportunity opened up and I became a assistant warehouse manager. And then we had trainings on hydronic and heating and cooling equipment. That was the, those are the products that we sell and provide to the marketplace.

Darryl Clark :
And so it is a recession proof industry because everyone needs heating, everyone needs cooling, everyone needs domestic hot water to be able to take a shower, wash their hands, brush their teeth. And so one day, one of our trainers, his name was Dan Holohan, he’s world renowned, he was having a training in our conference room and I snuck out of the warehouse and went into the back of his Training room. And I said, wow, this is something that I can do. And so I listened to the training, I went back into the warehouse, and then another opportunity opened up for, for inside sales. And my mentor, Mario Fazari, at the time I went to him and I said, hey, Mario, I’d like a shot at this inside sales position. And he said, you think you can do it, Darrell? I said, I’m pretty sure I can do it. I’d love an op. I’d love just to have an opportunity, Mario.

Darryl Clark :
And so he gave me the opportunity, and I looked around at the guys that were doing the inside sales, and I said, you know what? I can be better than every one of them. I can be the best inside salesperson that this company ever, ever had. So I bought Zig Ziglar’s books, See you at the top, top performers. Brian Tracy’s book, Psychology of Selling, Jeffrey Gitter’s book, the sales Bible, or whoever you can think of. I had a pile of them on my desk. That and, and other business management books as well. And so, you know, I would have guys coming by, hey, Darren, I want you to take this order. And I would take the order.

Darryl Clark :
And you know, one of the guys, his name was Chuck, he had a fantastic memory, and he would, he was, he was more of an order taker than he was a salesman, even though he was out on the road as a, as a sales guy. And so he would have these orders, he would come by my desk. Darrow, take this order for AF supply. I want 144, 47 dash twos, 64 67s. And so I would just write it down and I’d take the. Okay, I’ll take it from here, Chuck, and I’ll handle it. And then Chuck said to me one day, you know, Daryl, why do you have all of those books on your desk? You’re not going to be anything other than just an inside salesman, so you might as well leave it doing that. And so that wasn’t any motivation for me because I, I knew what I wanted to do already.

Darryl Clark :
But, and listen, you can have an excellent career as an inside salesman. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. And so he was kind of demeaning that position, you know, with, with his comments. But anyway, so I excelled at that position, and I did become the best inside salesman that our organization ever had. And another position opened up for what they call project management and, and performance contracting, sales. And so they. My boss at that time, he moved me over into that position. And my first week out I got a fifty thousand dollar order from Carrier Corporation and, and I showed it to Joe.

Darryl Clark :
When I came back, he was like, back in those days, that was a very, very big order. I would still love a fifty thousand dollar order today, you know, because every, every, you can’t get to a million dollars without starting with a penny and without getting to a dollar. So everything counts. It all counts. So I did well in, in that position with performance contracting. But Joe was like, man, if this guy can do this in one week, then we need to put him out on, in mechanical contractor sales, where the big dollars are. And so he put me out into that division and I quickly rose in that division, became the best outside salesman and mechanical contractor, plan the specification sales. And eventually Joe retired and I moved into his role now as managing the engineered products group, that whole outside sales division and plan and specification.

Darryl Clark :
And I did really, really well there. And the boss at that time, Hank Kunkel, he saw, he saw what I did from being in a warehouse to working for Joe and rising to manager of the whole division. So he made me an offer to become partner in the firm. And here we are today.

Mark Hunter :
I love that. This is what I love about you, because you love talking about motivation. You are an expert at motivating people, but you have done it, you have absolutely done it. Going from warehouse to boardroom, you’ve done that. So how do you, what are, what’s the secret for, for people to, to get motivated and to stay motivated?

Darryl Clark :
Yeah, that’s a very, very good question. You have to want it. You really do. You have to want it and you have to, you have to find your purpose. You have to find your purpose and your passion in life. Most people don’t know what that is. It’s very, very difficult to figure out what you want to do with your life. I believe that a lot of children that go to college, their parents are steering them in a direction saying, well, do this or do.

Darryl Clark :
They’re not doing what they want to do. They don’t really have a desire to do what their parents is pushing them towards. And they quite frankly haven’t taken inventory. Right. Of their strengths and weaknesses and figuring out what is it that they do well, what is it that they would do if they could do it every day, even if they didn’t get paid for it. Figuring out a way to do something that you love and to get paid well for it. So it takes to be, to stay motive, to stay motivated. It takes knowing what you want to do.

Darryl Clark :
Because if you don’t know what you want to do. Well, how are you going to be motivated to do anything? You don’t know what you want to do, but if you know what you want to do, right. And you’re passionate about it, then you do. You develop the discipline, right. To be consistent with it and do those things every single day. If you. I get up every day, right. I get up every morning.

Darryl Clark :
And, you know, my goal is to be able to touch somebody through the spoken word and through my audios that I send out every single morning, right? So people. People get those. And I get messages. I get messages back. Oh, thank you so much. I really needed that. I get messages. You know, if you didn’t send me that, I would have never started my own business.

Darryl Clark :
You know what? I’m so glad that you said that because, you know, I felt down today and now because you said that, you know, I’m in a different space, I’m in a different mindset. But it takes that kind of consistency to be able to have an impact on people, really. You have to figure out what you want to do, take inventory of yourself and what you. What your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, and figure out what you’re really good at. Right? And then, okay, how can I make a business out of what I’m really good at? And then being consistent, and then being consistent with it, doing it all the time, you have to have that discipline. Discipline. I define it as doing what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.

Mark Hunter :
Oh, I love that definition. That is. That is power. Hey, back up the audio 10 seconds. You got to hear what Daryl just did he drop. That was a mic drop moment. And I want to put that into perspective now, because when you were in the warehouse, you’re in the. Where.

Mark Hunter :
How did you motivate yourself in the warehouse? Because again, that wasn’t exactly your passion, Right, Right.

Darryl Clark :
No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t my passion, but it was. It was a starting point initially just to get some money to pay some bills, right? So I was going to college and, you know, I had to. Had to pay some bills that I had, you know, going on in college. So that was a starting point. And then when I was there, I was like, this is interesting because I did at that point, I didn’t say, hey, I want to be chief operating officer of this company. That was. That was not a thought in my mind at that time.

Darryl Clark :
My thought was, okay, how can I get a promotion? How can I make myself more valuable? Right? How can I Make myself more valuable just being a warehouse guy, because that’s tough. You know, you can. You know, you can find plenty of warehouse guys, but a neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeon is a specialist. So a neurosurgeon’s value is going to be much greater because there’s less of them. You can find a lot of guys that can work in the warehouse because it doesn’t take as much specialized knowledge. But while I was there, I said, hey, I can be the best warehouse guy, and let’s see where this can lead to.

Mark Hunter :
I hear three things in what you. You said, one, you were in the warehouse because you needed to get the money. So maybe that was your passion because you needed to get the money to pay for school.

Darryl Clark :
That was the motivation.

Mark Hunter :
That was the motivation. Two, you were curious. You were absolutely. Had a level of curiosity in. Three, you were committed to yourself. Because you were absolutely committed to yourself, saying, there must be another position that I can move myself into it. And I’m going to kind of say that those three things really started your upward progression, right?

Darryl Clark :
Yeah. So those. Those three things. And then plus my mother, she said, hey, I’m going to this seminar, and I want you to come with me. And I was like, oh, come on, Ma. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go to a seminar. And she’s like, oh, please, just come to me.

Darryl Clark :
Come with me to this seminar. I was like, okay, I’ll come with you. And it was at the Holiday Inn not far from here, and get to the seminar. And it’s Les Brown.

Mark Hunter :
Oh.

Darryl Clark :
So that was my introduction to Les Brown at around 21, 22 years old. And that seminar changed my life. He said, some things that stuck with me are still with me to this day. And that’s when I. When I heard his story, I said, okay, my story can be not his story, but something very, very similar. If it’s possible for him, then it’s possible for me. And that’s the title of one of his books, It’s Possible.

Mark Hunter :
I love that because, I mean, Les has an amazing story. And if. And if you. If anybody hasn’t heard the story of Les Brown, you can Google it. I’m sure there are videos out there on it. I’ve heard Les a number of times, and it is an amazing story. Now let’s again, back up this bus here a little bit, because I’m hearing you say something else. You allowed outside voices to come into your life.

Mark Hunter :
You said you had a stack of books on your desk. You know, your mother took you to the Les Brown event and it sounds like that’s a key. It’s almost like putting fuel, motivation, fuel into your tank to be motivated. Is that a strategy that you say works?

Darryl Clark :
That is absolutely a strategy, yes. You know? Yeah. When you think about your computer, right. And someone says, okay, hey, did you download, did you download that, that document, you know, that I emailed over to you, that has, you know, the IRS code on it or that has, you know, the, the NBA stats on it or whatever, you can download it when, when I, When I. When I read Integrity, best selling by Mark Hunter. I’m downloading the consciousness of Mark Hunter into my mind and I’m taking certain things from that and it’s becoming a part of me. When I read Tony Robbins Ultimate Power and Awaken the Greatness, I’m downloading that book in certain parts of it that I’m going to take and use every single day. So when you read those books, Napoleon Hill Thinking, Grow Rich and all the Other Great Books, 7 Habits of Highly Effective.

Darryl Clark :
When you read those, you’re downloading the consciousness of the author into you. As long as you take it and apply it, that’s the key. You have to apply it. People say knowledge is power. Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is potential power. It’s the application of that knowledge that is the power.

Mark Hunter :
I love what you said. There’s another mic drop. Moen, back up the audio 10 seconds and listen to what Daryl just shared. And, and again, I think it’s, it’s what you allow in your mind. That’s why I love your, your morning messages, your morning audio messages, because they’re so powerful. They’re so. Again, you know, I always say what you put in your mind, first thing sticks with you. And it’s so critical, so important.

Mark Hunter :
Do you find, kind of a side note, that as you put those messages together, that you get motivated because of what you’re sharing?

Darryl Clark :
Absolutely. Yeah. I, I get motivated as I’m, as I’m reading at night before I go to bed and thinking about what I want to say in the morning. That as I get up in the morning and I’m thinking about it and I start recording it, I’m like, wow, that was powerful, man. That was, that was serious. That’s gonna, that’s gonna touch somebody today.

Mark Hunter :
I love what you said because I find that so amazing in my own life when I take the time to invest in other people. It’s amazing at how I’m investing in myself. And there’s something just powerful about that. And I think that’s why highly motivated people hang out with highly motivated people. Because again, it’s almost like the motivation just kind of runs back and forth between everybody in that group. You also have applied something else. There’s a level of accountability. I think if we want to get motivated and stay motivated, there’s an accountability to somebody else and accountability to ourselves.

Mark Hunter :
You made the comment when you were working in the warehouse, you needed to get the money. And I feel like, I feel like every step along the way you’ve got your family, you’re actively trying to support your family and provide for them. Best. I’ve had a chance to meet your kids and it’s amazing how I see highly motivated people taking the time to invest in other people.

Darryl Clark :
Sure. Wow.

Mark Hunter :
Sure.

Darryl Clark :
Yeah. You have to. You really do have to. If you’re going to be in this business, in this field, stay motivated. You have to want to be a. Be an example, right. You want to be an example and you have to be motivated to be that example of what success looks like, of what hard work looks like, of what discipline looks like. Right.

Darryl Clark :
And so it was very, very, extremely important for me, having grown up without a dad, to be there for my children to make sure that they had a dad in the home. That was so important to me. I was like, my children are going to see me in the home. They’re going to be in my home, they’re going to be raised by me and they’re going. And they’re going to see me every day, work hard. They’re going to see me get up in the morning at 4 o’, clock, get up, go out, go running, get my exercise in. They’re going to see me do that. They’ll be sleep, but they’ll know that I did it because, you know, I have recordings of those as well.

Darryl Clark :
Then they’ll see me come home and read from 5:15 to 5:45 for a half hour every day. Sometimes they get up and they would see me when they were kids, but I did that every day. And it was that consistency, right? Reading. You reading for a half hour every single day. You end up reading, you know, and you. And then you take some lunch time and, and some other break time and get 15 minutes of reading in, 15 minutes of reading in here. And before you know it, you’re reading a book a week. Well, the average American mark only reads one book a year, right? If you read one book, if you read one book, one nonfiction book, if you read one Book a month.

Darryl Clark :
Well, you. At the end of the year, you would have read 12 books. Average American would have read only one book. I read a book a week. So at the end of the year, I’ve read 50 books. Right, where the average American only read one. Well, in five years, I got 250 authors like yourself downloaded into my consciousness. At the end of five years, 250 books where the average American has only got five.

Darryl Clark :
And so I’m getting up earlier than people in my field. Right? And I’m also reading more than people in my field. I’m attending seminars by people like Dr. John Maxwell, the 21 irrefutable laws of Leadership. I’ve met him and I’ve got pictures with him. I’ve taken some of his trainings. So it’s investing in yourself. Right, so that I could be there for my kids, so that my children could see, you know, an example of good leadership, good father, working hard for them, making sure that I was there, helping them with their homework, helping them with after school activities, bringing them to track, football, basketball, dancing, all of that kind of stuff.

Darryl Clark :
And just being there for them. And, you know, with them seeing the hard work, the discipline, the dedication that I put into it, well, it just kind of transferred over to them and they did the same thing. They did the same thing. My daughter, she got a perfect score in the SAT section of the SATs and a perfect score of 800 and did phenomenal. She went to Vanderbilt University, graduated, and she’s now working for Google. My son’s a cyber security officer. He went to the University of Pittsburgh, and now he’s a captain in the army with a unit of his own in cybersecurity. And I’m not saying this again, please don’t misunderstand me.

Darryl Clark :
I’m not saying it trying to impress you, but as some of the greats have said, to impress upon you what is possible when you focus your discipline. You put your mind to it and you apply that knowledge because that’s where the real power is in the application.

Mark Hunter :
That is a perfect way to end this session. You have demonstrated to us how to get motivated, how to stay motivated, and you’ve lived a life that has done just that. We’ve been talking today with Darrell Clark, gone from warehouse to boardroom, chief operating officer of his company. Darrell, how do people get on the list to get your daily audio message? Because I get it every morning and I love it.

Darryl Clark :
Yeah, go to www.wea-inc.com and leave it in the comment section that you’d like to be on that motivational list.

Mark Hunter :
Terrific. And what we’ll do is we’re going to put that link in the show notes so people can have that. But I’m highly recommend you get his every morning. Like I said, I get it at 6am or 5am or something like that. I don’t know. It always goes off.

Darryl Clark :
It goes, it goes out. It goes out at 6:00am Eastern time.

Mark Hunter :
6:00am eastern time. Okay. So typically I’m in Central time. So, so it’s 5:00am here.

Darryl Clark :
And yeah, some people in the west coast get it at, at 3:00am and then in China, I don’t know what time they get it.

Mark Hunter :
Well, you know what? I don’t care because they better be up by now then.

Darryl Clark :
Right.

Mark Hunter :
Because again, like, you run every morning. I run every morning. I’m up well before 5. I’m up about 4:30 every morning. And I love it. You do too, because discipline is so key. Hey Darrell, thank you so much for being with us. Again, we’re going to put the link to get his audio message in the show notes.

Mark Hunter :
What a powerful session here today. Two podcasts each week, one like this where we do a deep dive with a subject matter expert. Darrell certainly fills that bill. Second one is where I just take a single topic and unpack it for you. Why do I do the podcast is to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. Because when you surround yourself with excellence and you invest in other people, it is amazing at what can happen and what will happen. That’s how you get motivated. That’s how you stay motivated.

Mark Hunter :
I’m Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Great selling.

Let’s break down eight ways that actually works.

1. Closing is the result, not the goal.

You’re not in the business of closing. You’re in the business of helping customers achieve results.

Mark puts it plainly: closing is what happens when you do everything else right. If your focus is just the close, you’re missing the big picture. The real assignment is helping the customer reach enough confidence to move forward. Selling isn’t a wrestling match, it’s a partnership.

2. Your role is to guide, not push.

Pushy salespeople wreck deals. The second you start forcing the issue, your customer smells trouble.

Every buyer has dealt with an aggressive salesperson before. All it does is make buyers hesitant and suspicious. You want to be the opposite. 

Guide your customer. Ask smart questions. Show them you’ve solved similar problems before. Let them feel you know exactly how to help them win.

3. Customers decide when they feel ready.

Here’s the hard truth: you can’t decide for them. Customers make buying decisions when they feel ready, not when you want them to be ready.

What you can do is help speed up that readiness is not by pushing, but by boosting their confidence and clarity. When the buyer truly believes in the path forward, they buy. Your responsibility is to help them get there.

4. Remove barriers instead of applying pressure.

Stop applying pressure and instead start removing obstacles. Too many salespeople play the urgency card: You need to buy now! Quantities are limited! Deadlines are looming!

But that’s the path to resistance and excuses. Instead, ask questions that allow buyers to imagine achieving their goals:

What would happen if you could have this solution next week?
How would this set you up for the next quarter?

When you show buyers a clear route to their success, you take away the roadblocks.

5. The best close feels like the next logical step

If you’ve truly been listening, finding real problems, and proposing actual solutions, then “the close” isn’t a magic trick. It’s just what makes sense next. When the conversation has hit all the right notes, it should feel natural for the customer to buy. Not forced. Not awkward. Just obvious.

6. If you have to “push,” something is missing

Sometimes you’ll feel stuck, tempted to push harder. But if pushing is required, you missed something earlier.

When a deal isn’t moving, stop and ask yourself: What isn’t clear for the customer? Where is their confidence lacking? Go back. Fill in the gaps. Make sure it’s the customer’s best interest driving urgency, not your quota.

7. Questions close more deals than statements

Statements don’t close, questions do.

Why does making this decision today make sense for you?
What if you don’t move forward—what happens next quarter?
How will this decision help you reach your goals?

Great questions invite your customer to process, reflect, and move forward on their own. 

8. Help them see, not just hear

The goal isn’t to talk at your customers. It’s to help them see what success really looks like with your solution in place.
Let them paint their own picture of what happens after the sale. When they see themselves succeeding, the decision follows naturally. That’s when you know you’ve done your job right.

The most significant differentiator isn’t your product, price, or even your pitch—it’s your integrity.

Buy it on Amazon!

How to Build Trust and Loyalty for Bigger Paychecks

Integrity is not soft. Want to boost sales and lower stress? It’s time to embrace integrity-driven selling.

Find episode #415 wherever you download podcasts!

Daily Motivation Routines for Sales Professionals

w/ Darryl Clark

Why finding your passion and purpose is essential and how surrounding yourself with the right mindset can reshape your career and your life.

Episode #416 is out THURSDAY!!

Copyright 2026, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.

Integrity gets misunderstood. Too often, it’s seen as simply being nice, agreeing with the customer, or saying yes to every request. That’s wrong.

Selling with integrity means treating the customer the way they need to be treated. Sometimes, it means being firm and calling out the hard truths. Sometimes, it means holding the line when everyone else would give in.

Salespeople who operate with integrity don’t waiver depending on the customer or the deal. They behave consistently, aligning their words and actions even if it isn’t easy.

Three Pillars Before the Benefits

There are three things every salesperson must anchor to:

1. Consistency and Alignment
   Integrity isn’t just about honesty. It’s about saying the hard things, even when it’s uncomfortable. When the customer is wrong, it’s the job of the salesperson to call them on it skillfully and with a story.
   
2. Long-Term Relationships over Short-Term Wins
   The temptation to close a deal just to hit a quarterly number is real. But integrity is about the long game. A full, always-prospecting pipeline is the safeguard against compromising values to “just get the deal in.”
   
3. Trust Builds in the Small Moments
   Trust is built in tiny increments, not just the big gestures. Being late to a meeting or slow to respond chips away at trust. Every little thing matters.

“Selling with integrity is not a light switch that you turn on or off. It is absolutely part of your DNA.”

Nine Benefits of Selling with Integrity

What happens when these principles are put into action? The rewards multiply.

1. More Referrals Flow In

Customers recognize integrity. They trust more, share more, and refer more.
If referrals are missing, it’s a red flag. Integrity isn’t just what you claim. Customers see it in action and reward it.

2. Higher Margins, Less Discounting

Selling with integrity drives value. Customers spot the difference.
They respect your price point. The scramble to discount vanishes, and margin pressure eases. That means healthier deals, without sacrificing the relationship.

3. Customers Buy More, and They Come Back

Delightful first experiences create repeat buyers. Customers who value the relationship buy again and again.
If repeat sales aren’t materializing, it may not be the product. It may be the message and the consistency behind it.

4. Fewer Post-Sale Headaches

Integrity aligns expectations with reality. False promises made just to close a deal create chaos. Margins slip and costs rise as teams scramble post-sale. Setting honest, accurate expectations up front stops this cycle.

5. Less Competition, Stronger Reputation

A reputation for integrity thins the competitive herd.

Customers talk to fewer other options. They come straight to the known, trusted source. That means less time spent chasing and bidding, and more time deepening relationships.

6. Market Share Grows Through Consistency

In tough times, salespeople lacking integrity often back down. Those who stick to their principles stand out—and win share as competitors fold.

7. Early Wins on New Innovations

When a new product or service drops, customers buy in faster from those they already trust.
Suppliers bring new opportunities to trusted partners before anyone else. Momentum grows.

8. Less Stress, More Joy

Integrity reduces stress because there’s clarity and trust.

The sales process becomes about helping, not hustling. The work becomes more enjoyable and more productive.

“When you are selling with integrity, it is amazing at how your level of stress drops.”

9. The Paycheck Compounds Over Time

The benefits build, reputation grows, and your pipeline strengthens.
Each act of integrity is like depositing in an account—eventually, it compounds into something much bigger.

It’s Essential, Not Optional

Integrity isn’t a suggestion. Everything changes when it becomes non-negotiable.

“Integrity compounds also, because the more you demonstrate integrity, what happens is people begin talking.”

Sales leadership, stronger sales, bigger market share, and more fulfilled careers are on the table for the salespeople who refuse to take shortcuts.

Integrity isn’t just how you behave when everyone is watching. It’s what goes unseen, making the right choice every time.

Stop Selling, Start Listening

Most sales reps still do the majority of the talking, sticking tightly to scripts, backgrounders, and rehearsed pitches. According to Andy Greenberg, that’s exactly where things fall apart.

“The key here, when you’re in front of a buyer, is to say to yourself, the buyer is my teacher,” Andy Greenberg explained. Treating buyers as teachers unlocks a whole new level of discovery. When reps actually listen, buyers will share what really matters.

It’s not the rep’s job to diagnose everything up front. Instead, get curious. Ask, “What information don’t I yet have to solve your problem?” and let the customer fill in the blanks. The sales conversation shifts from pitch to partnership.

Pro Calling: The Future-Focused Approach

Forget cold calling. Andy Greenberg calls for “pro calling”—professional, proactive calls designed to provoke real thought and future-focused outcomes. The idea isn’t to “solve pain,” but to guide buyers to envision a better future with your solution.

“My concept is if they have not yet researched how to solve that problem before you call them, they should have been fired in the first place,” Andy Greenberg said. Real value comes from helping buyers imagine new possibilities they haven’t considered, rather than just rehashing what’s broken.

To get the meeting, offer to show three future outcomes (not currently available from existing suppliers) specific to their company or industry. Use the meeting as an opportunity to co-create that future with the buyer, then ask: which of these outcomes helps you solve your problem today, and which do you want tomorrow? Anchor the conversation in where they’re going, not just where they are.

Stand Out with Smarter Questions

Generic, “me too” questions make you invisible. Andy Greenberg recommends reframing from the very start, especially when it comes to stakeholders. Instead of asking, “Is there anyone else involved in the decision?” lead with, “In addition to yourself, who else is involved in the decision making process, and what are their criteria?”

This approach accomplishes two things: it honors the person you’re speaking to and opens the door to deeper intel about the buying team. As Andy Greenberg put it, “You have to give the guy the honor that he has in addition to yourself, because you are important.”

Uncovering True Intent (and Urgency)

Buyers often lack urgency. Even if they love the idea, they aren’t always motivated to act. To surface real intent, Andy Greenberg uses a smart time-travel question: “If we had this meeting two years ago and these were available to you so you would not have the pain that you have today, would you have selected this solution two years ago?”

This line encourages prospects to reflect, clarify the cost of inaction, and builds a natural momentum toward change.

Price Conversations: Move Beyond “Too Expensive”

Price objections are inevitable. Instead of getting defensive, inject a little humor and perspective.
“You know, I’ve always wondered, what’s the difference between too expensive and expensive?”

Zero in on the value gap. Ask, “If everybody came in at the same price, which company would you choose?” Get them to name what makes you different, then tie the extra investment directly to the unique outcomes only you deliver.

Confidence: The Secret Ingredient

Bringing up price shouldn’t trigger a race to the bottom. Confidence in your product, your price, and most importantly, in yourself, is vital. Andy Greenberg shared a story where he refused to share his price until the prospect fully understood the value. The result? No negotiation, deal closed.

He connected this mindset to sports: “If you go up there and say to yourself, I’ve been in the minors, I got the training, I got my coaches, I got my managers. This is what I am made for. Then what’s going to happen? You’re going to wind up hitting the ball.”

The buyer needs confidence too. Highlight their expertise, affirm their role, and invite open dialogue so both sides feel like winners.

Great Sales Questions, Great Results

The right questions don’t just unlock deals, they elevate both buyer and seller. Position the buyer as the hero, frame every exchange around future gains, and carry unshakeable confidence in every conversation.

Mark Hunter :
Are the questions you’re asking your customers landing with a thud, or are you getting the answer that you’re looking for? In today’s marketplace, it’s harder than ever to know what are the right questions to ask. With me today, Andy Greenberg. He is a sales and marketing expert, been around for years, and he’s got the answer. And the show begins right now. You’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast

Andy Greenberg :
with Mark Hunter, where the focus is

Mark Hunter :
to help you as a salesman, sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your host. When you have the right questions, it’s amazing at what the customer will share with you. Andy Greenberg is my guest today. Andy, welcome to the show.

Andy Greenberg :
Thank you, Mark. And on behalf of all the salespeople out there throughout the entire world, please accept my thanks on their behalf for everything that you do well.

Mark Hunter :
Hey, you have taught so many people so much about how to sell, and you talk very specifically about the questions you gotta ask. So let’s dive right into it. Where salespeople blowing it, and what are those right questions that they should be asking?

Andy Greenberg :
So where they’re blowing it is they are trying, as we all know, to do a lot of talking. And they have these scripts, and they have the background and they have the training and they have the role playing. But what they don’t do is listen. So there’s a very, very excellent technique to learn how to listen and then to pose your questions. And, Mark, it is just like being in a classroom. In a classroom, the teacher talks, teaches, gives the background, tells a lot about the topic and the subject, just like a buyer does about their company. And then they disclose a problem that you, as a student need to solve. When they do that, you get to ask questions.

Andy Greenberg :
What information don’t you yet have to solve that problem? So the key here, when you’re in front of a buyer, is to say to yourself, the buyer is my teacher. The teacher is going to get me through the process, give me the subject matter, explain the problem, and then it’s my turn to go ahead and solve it. Now, the key is I’ve got to solve that quicker and faster than anyone else in the classroom.

Mark Hunter :
Okay, I want to unpack that because that is so cool. You’re turning the buyer into the teacher. But how do you get the teacher to even open up when sometimes those buyers just don’t want to say anything?

Andy Greenberg :
So the first part of it, of course, is you get that appointment. And how do you go about doing that? Now, we always talk about, we have cold calls. I do not believe in the concept of cold calls. That’s not where I’m at. That’s not where I ever was. It is pro calling. What does that mean? Proactive professional calling to provoke a buyer to procure your products based on their needs. So what I like to do, and I’m going to position this in a question in just a moment.

Andy Greenberg :
What I like to do, and this is counter what a lot of times are, on a lot of podcasts or information, everybody says, solve a problem, solve a problem, get them to feel that pain. My concept is if they have not yet researched how to solve that problem before you call them, they should have been fired in the first place. There’s no reason that they have to wait for you to tell them how to solve a problem. So what I like to do is create their future. And what I like to do is to predict their future with or without my product or service and then get them to say, wow, I am better off in the future. So how do we do this? If your current supplier called you today and offered to show you these three outcomes, and these outcomes have to be for the industry or that particular company and ask you for an appointment to show you these things, would you grant your current supplier an appointment and mark, what do you think that buyer is going to say? Sure, absolutely. You know what, it’s a stupid question, of course I will. But you know what, your current supplier has not yet made that phone call because they have not yet developed what you have just expressed interest in.

Andy Greenberg :
So let’s go ahead and get our calendars out. Let’s calibrate our calendars. Very important word. Let’s calibrate our calendars. Pick a time that works for both of us so we can continue to see how this is a fit for your company in something you expressed interest in. I will tell you, I have penetrated so many accounts where even the salesperson might have been their next door neighbor because I was not selling on price, I was selling on the future.

Mark Hunter :
So you are really diving into the problem that the customer has. But the customer’s got to identify what their problem is. Now, can we use questions to help expand that, Help get them to elaborate on it? Because sometimes the customer isn’t quite clear as to.

Andy Greenberg :
So when you have the, when you mentioned three outcomes and you have that dialogue going, are these three outcomes or which one of these three outcomes, number one, would help you solve a problem you’re having today and which other two that are remaining that you don’t have today that you would like to have. And then when you go back to the question number one, that’s when they delve into it. But you have to remember when people set budgets and they, they’re actually looking at the future, what are they saying? Right now, January 1st, I’m at zero sales. My future says I have to be whatever the number is, $2 million. I’m not talking about the salesperson. I’m talking about the buyer. Or the buyer has an expense account by the end of the year, he’s got to reduce it by this amount or he’s got to increase productivity by this amount. So by making the phone call that way, these are the outcomes that your current supplier is not offering you.

Andy Greenberg :
And how is this going to help you accelerate your goals to get them faster achieved and even exceed them? That’s the way you probe that. You probe them and then you can go into the regular techniques, how long you’ve been working on it, et cetera, et cetera. But here’s the problem. If everybody asks the same questions, then I don’t stand out. So that’s why I like to predict the future as the future, meaning these problems no longer exist. Now, step number two, you have that appointment. You’re there sitting in front of the person. How do you position it? Well, Mr.

Andy Greenberg :
Hunter, when we first agreed to make this appointment, you expressed interest in this, this and that. Whatever those three outcomes are, are we still interested in exploring. And watch what I’m doing, Mark. I’m nodding my head. Are we still, are we still interested in exploring these three options? And what did you just do? Involuntarily? You nodded your head. Okay, I got you into the affirmative. And by the way, since we made the appointment, up until this very moment, what additional thoughts have you had about these outcomes that can help you solve today’s problems and accelerate the growth of your company to the future? And that way, Mark, they begin to open up. I’ve set the establishment for that meeting.

Mark Hunter :
Okay, so now what are some of the questions that you go with there? Because you, you share, you got some specific questions, you want to help people with it. So.

Andy Greenberg :
Yes. So then you have the, then you have the issue that’s saying. So let’s, let’s assume now that we are talking about this particular product or this particular outcome. In addition to yourself, which has always been a problem, in addition to yourself, who else is involved in the decision making process? And you don’t say, is there anybody else? Because that’s, that’s not, you have to give the guy the, the the honor that he has in addition to yourself, because you are important. Who else is involved and what are their criteria for making a decision? And incidentally, what is the best way to communicate everything that we’re exploring today to make sure that it is tailored to their specific questions and needs and they will answer.

Mark Hunter :
Oh, I like what you said there because you, you elevated the person you’re speaking to.

Andy Greenberg :
Right.

Mark Hunter :
You know.

Andy Greenberg :
Right.

Mark Hunter :
You said, you know, you put them in the decision making process, but then you invited them very easily to share with you other. Other names. Yeah. Correct. Are there questions that you use to validate that? Because many times a buyer will overinflate their ability to make a decision.

Andy Greenberg :
Yes. And I like that. When a person overinflates their decision, what does that mean? They feel real good about themselves. They have a sense of confidence in themselves. They might have done this before. So I don’t really have an issue with that. But I would turn that around and work on that person’s ego. And I would probably use a different word.

Andy Greenberg :
As you lead the decision making process. If I detect that individual has an ego and is really full of himself or herself, I should say, then I would say to that person, as you lead the decision making process.

Mark Hunter :
I love that. I love that term. Now here’s the question. Then you’re talking to them and there’s other people involved.

Andy Greenberg :
How do you really get.

Mark Hunter :
Because so many times customers will be interested, but there really isn’t intent a need to critically solve this. Now, are there questions that you use to help flesh out the intent?

Andy Greenberg :
Yeah. So once they recognize that, wow, this is really good, but I don’t feel that sense of urgency. I feel that it’s going on the back burner. Here’s what I would say. I say, quick question. If we had this meeting two years ago and two years ago, these were available to you so you would not have the pain that you have today. Would you have selected this solution two years ago? And I pause. And what do you think? They always say yes, two years ago I would have made that decision.

Andy Greenberg :
Well, two years ago, you didn’t have the opportunity to make that decision. So the question you and your team have to ask yourself, do you want to go through this for another two years? And look what you’re doing. You’re nodding your head, you’re there. I’m watching that body language very carefully. You’re there. You’re not going like that. You’re nodding as I go through it.

Mark Hunter :
Yeah, you’re. You’re subliminally leading the customer?

Andy Greenberg :
Yes. Yes.

Mark Hunter :
Yeah.

Andy Greenberg :
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And as you lead them, am I being over pressuring? No. Am I being conversational? Yes. Are they appreciating that type of a presentation? Yes. Am I showing interest in their jobs and their solutions, in their issues? Absolutely. And that’s. And that’s how it works.

Andy Greenberg :
That’s how it works. For now. One other important point or many others people talk about, well, the price is going to be this. This is your cost, this is your investment. 99% of the salespeople say that it’s boring. And there’s another way to do it. What is that way? In exchange. Watch that word.

Andy Greenberg :
In exchange for $69,323 your company will permanently receive, you talk about the three outcomes and then you say, is that a fair deal?

Mark Hunter :
I love what you’re saying there because you’re wrapping the price around the outcome and the benefit that they’re going to receive.

Andy Greenberg :
But I’m not using the word price. I’m saying in exchange for. Yeah, right. So if somebody comes back and says, and this is for people that use price, cost and investment, somebody comes back and says, well, you know what, your price is too expensive. It’s too expensive everywhere. Too expensive.

Mark Hunter :
We hear that all the time.

Andy Greenberg :
Yeah, well, you got to put a little bit of humor into it. And instead of justifying what your expense, what your, what your exchange is, you say the following. You know, I’ve always wondered, what’s the difference between too expensive and expensive? Wow.

Mark Hunter :
Wow.

Andy Greenberg :
So what happened? I kind of changed the conversation, put a little bit of humor into it. If you saw the body language that I was using. And then all of a sudden the whole thing of too expensive is somewhat minimized. Then you say to yourself, okay, so what’s the gap? And they’re going to give you a gap. 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, 10,000. And then as we all know, you don’t sell the $69,000 anymore. You sell the $5,000 gap. And here’s how you do that.

Andy Greenberg :
You say to someone, okay, quick question. If everybody came in at the same price, same exact price, which company would you choose? Would you choose my company if all the prices were the same? And most of the time they will say, yeah. And then what do you do?

Mark Hunter :
Why?

Andy Greenberg :
What makes us different? Then they answer, and then you know what, you come back and you say, that’s where that five thousand dollar gap comes from, comma, that’s where the value lies. Doesn’t lie in the 69, 000. We’re beyond that, it lies in the five thousand dollar gap. So where do you suggest we proceed from here

Mark Hunter :
now? Okay, what you just described, yeah, I love the strategy, but so many salespeople are not confident enough to use that. In other words, they’re scared talking about price. They hear price and they immediately discount. Do you have some strategies or techniques that salespeople can use to help get them to that level of confidence that they need to have?

Andy Greenberg :
Yes. Number one, they’ve got to be proud of what they are doing. If they feel that their product is inferior, then that’s going to really hinder negotiations. If they feel that their product will do exactly what it’s supposed to do in terms of delivery, in terms of outcome, when you present the exchange, I’m not going to use the word price, but if they do, I’ll, I’ll do it. Once you, once you present the price, you are proud of that price. And I’ll give you a quick story. There was a major multi million dollar contract on the table one time and I got invited in to go ahead and make a presentation. Okay.

Andy Greenberg :
Never forget this. And I had my PowerPoint and I had all my questions. It was ready to go and the room was surrounded with all the decision makers. The person that called me in saw my PowerPoint and said, Andy, put that PowerPoint aside. All I want is your price. Now a lot of people would shudder. They’d be afraid, they’d be scared. So here’s what I did.

Andy Greenberg :
I said that is not going to happen because when we talk about price, you’re getting something in return and you want to understand that. So here’s what we are going to do. You’re going to give me 20 minutes to go through my presentation. We’re going to talk about it. It’s going to go back and forth. If I’m not done in 20 minutes and I’ve still got more to go, that’s my problem. Then I’ll give you the price intentionally. I didn’t finish in 20 minutes and I stopped exactly at 20 minutes and I said, well, you have a choice.

Andy Greenberg :
I know I told you I’d give you the price. You want the price or would you like me to continue so you could get a full understanding of what your future would be? And Mark, what did they do? By all means, continue going. Yep, I gave him. We, I gave him the price. Multi million dollars, Mark. No negotiations walked out with the order,

Mark Hunter :
but you had to walk into that

Andy Greenberg :
with absolute confidence because, yes, you have two things. And thank you have to have confidence in your product. You have to have confidence in your price. As important, you have to have confidence in yourself. And how do you gain that confidence in yourself? It’s basically through experience, basically through knowledge that basically through coaching, basically through training. And it is the same thing as when a battery gets up in the bottom of the ninth and you could be in little league or you can be in major leagues. Two thoughts go through your mind.

Mark Hunter :
One thought.

Andy Greenberg :
The only thing I don’t want to do is embarrass myself. I don’t want to strike out. Well, what’s going to happen?

Mark Hunter :
You’re going to strike out.

Andy Greenberg :
You’re going to strike out. If you go up there and says and say to yourself, I’ve been in the minors, I’ve got the training, I got my coaches, I got my managers. This is what I am made for. Then what’s going to happen?

Mark Hunter :
You’re going to wind up hitting the ball.

Andy Greenberg :
You’re going to wind up hitting the ball and. And potentially being the game winner or the game run or what have you. So what is it? It’s all in your mindset. Which means what? People will walk into an account and they will either have a negative approach or a positive approach. Either. I don’t want to aggravate. Pardon me, either. I don’t want to embarrass myself or for the sake of my 300 employees who are depending upon me to bring this business home.

Andy Greenberg :
I am at the bottom of the ninth. When I come back with this order, they’ll cheer for me, I’ll cheer for them, and it’s a partnership.

Mark Hunter :
Okay. I love where you’re going with this. Because just as the salesperson has to feel confident not to embarrass themselves, I think the customer has to feel confident that they’re not going to embarrass themselves. Right?

Andy Greenberg :
Right.

Mark Hunter :
Because the last thing a customer wants to do is make a decision that either they regret or they get mocked for. Either way, not a good outcome. We only got a minute or two left. But how can I make sure that my customer is feeling confident?

Andy Greenberg :
It’s the way they look at you, the way they respond to you, the body language that they have. And you, of course, can pick them up and you can. Basically, you’ve been in this position for one month. Even if it’s one month. Okay. You’re in this position because of certain skills and talents that you have. You’re a good decision maker. And if there’s any flaw that you see in anything that we talked about, which will not position you for the betterment of your company.

Andy Greenberg :
Let’s talk about it.

Mark Hunter :
You’re really elevating the customer right there.

Andy Greenberg :
Right.

Mark Hunter :
And you’re allowing them to feel. Wow, Andy, this has been a fantastic conversation. We’ve been speaking today with Andy Greenberg. I don’t think anybody has more sales and marketing experience than Andy. In terms of your background and the companies you’ve had the privilege of working with, how do people get in touch with you?

Andy Greenberg :
I have my email address. Speaking of Andy Greenberg, comcast.net why the speaking? Well, you know, speaking of this guy. So boom. Speaking of andy Greenberg@comcast.net I love that.

Mark Hunter :
And we’re going to put that into the show. Notes for everyone. But you’ve been listening today to Andy Greenberg. Share with you specific questions to help you overcome price, to help you set the table and have the right conversation. And I love it. Andy, thank you so much for being on the show. You’ve been listening to the Sales Hunter podcast. Two episodes like this each week.

Mark Hunter :
One where we do a deep dive dive with a subject matter expert like we’ve had here today with Andy. Second is where I just unpack a single topic. Hey, why? Because it’s to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. Make sure you pick up a copy of my newest book, Integrity first selling and hey, reach out. Love to have a conversation with you anytime and I’ll see you on the next episode. Great selling.

Not Every Prospect Deserves Your Time

Quit chasing shiny objects. If a prospect doesn’t fit your ideal customer profile (ICP), why are you even talking to them? 

Scarcity of leads is never an excuse to waste your energy on unqualified opportunities. As Mark put it, “Not every prospect deserves your time. They have to earn it.” Use your calendar like a bouncer: only the right prospects make it past the rope.

Saying No Builds Credibility

“No” might be the most profitable word in sales. Every time you walk away from the wrong deal, you strengthen your focus and reinforce your value inside your own mind and in your market. Saying no builds your credibility, not just with your prospects, but with yourself.

Qualify for Fit, Not Just Interest

Interest means nothing if there’s no intent. Prospects may take your calls and meetings and drop nice-sounding hints, but if they’re not aligned with your ICP, you’re heading toward a dead end. 

Don’t get fooled by meetings and friendly chatter. Qualify for fit. Check for intent. Make sure you’re speaking to someone who needs what you offer and is able to act.

Bad Deals Consume More Time Than Good Ones Create

Bad deals aren’t just a headache, they’re a black hole. They suck up more hours than good ones ever generate. Mark said, “Bad deals consume more time than good ones create.” 

Run through your process and end up with an uncloseable deal, or worse, a sale that comes at a discount and with endless problems. The best time to say no is at the start.

Walking Away Increases Your Perceived Value

It’s counterintuitive, but true: the more willing you are to walk away, the more valuable you appear. Don’t be afraid to say, “Let’s wait a couple months,” or, “This isn’t the right fit.” Not only are you saving yourself, you might be doing the prospect a favor. The result? You stand out as focused and committed, and a seller who values your time and theirs.

Ask Tougher Questions Earlier

Don’t be shy. Too many deals drag on because salespeople avoid the hard questions. Ask them upfront: “How have you made decisions like this in the past?” “Why is it so important to talk now?” “What happens if you don’t decide?” If they can’t give you real answers, you’re probably talking to a tourist, not a buyer. 

Get comfortable asking the tough stuff and your pipeline will thank you.

You’re Not Here to Convince, You’re Here to Uncover

Stop seeing yourself as a persuader on trial. Your job isn’t to convince someone you’re right. Your job is to uncover their real needs and challenges, then see if you can help. That only happens when you have an honest conversation. 

Create enough comfort that prospects will tell you what they’re actually dealing with. That’s when you know you’re moving forward.

Focus on the Right Customers, Not More Customers

Sales isn’t about more. It’s about right. The only way to scale your pipeline is to focus on the prospects who fit. The right ICP. Real intent. Real need. Right buyer. 

“I want to be focusing on the right customers, not more customers.” Say no to distractions and double down on the deals that matter.

Winning in sales doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you have the courage to filter hard, walk away early, and zero in on buyers who are ready to act. The rest will just slow you down. Great selling.

The most significant differentiator isn’t your product, price, or even your pitch—it’s your integrity.

Buy it on Amazon!

6 Critical Questions to Ask Every Prospect

Discover how to separate prospects with real intent from those merely showing interest.

Find episode #413 wherever you download podcasts!

Powerful Questions to Predict Your Customer’s Needs

w/ Andy Greenberg

Explore why turning buyers into teachers transforms the information flow and helps sellers stand out.

Episode #414 is out now!

Copyright 2026, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.

Assuming a prospect’s a fit just because they hit your ICP is a classic mistake. Qualified prospects show intent, not just interest. Here’s how to uncover real intent and stop spinning your wheels.

1. What Problem Are You Trying to Solve?

Every qualified sale starts with pain or a challenge. If the prospect can’t articulate a problem, there’s nothing to solve, and nothing to sell.

“If the problem they have is not significant enough, then they’re not going to try to solve it.”

The entire value proposition should revolve around the prospect’s problem. Make them describe it. Make them expand on it. No shortcuts.

2. Why Now?

Urgency separates tire-kickers from buyers. Find out if this is a nice-to-have or a must-have immediately.

Every sales process hinges on timing. Ask why fixing the problem matters at this particular moment.

“You have to have a need, and there has to be an urgency, an importance for the customer to buy.”

Without urgency, deals stall.

3. What Happens If Nothing Changes?

This is the question most salespeople skip, and at their own peril.

No decision is your biggest competitor. If the status quo is acceptable, the deal’s dead before it starts. Dig into what “no change” actually means.

Is there a workaround? Are they content with a current supplier? Don’t assume you know. Get specifics.

4. Who Else Is Involved?

Chances are you’re not talking to the only decision maker. Ignore this and you’ll be blindsided late in the game.

Find out who else signs off, who holds the budget, and who will actually use your solution.

“It’s absolutely imperative that I begin creating relationships with these people or these departments sooner than later.”

If you can’t map out the buying ecosystem, you aren’t really in the deal.

5. What Does Success Look Like?

This isn’t a fluffy question. Real success means different things to different stakeholders.

Probe for two answers: how does success look to the person you’re talking to, and how does it look at the company level? If you’re only solving for one, you’re missing half the picture.

6. How Have You Solved Problems Like This Before?

History informs strategy. Uncover how similar issues have been handled.

Did they pull in procurement? Did they go through technical validations? Did it drag through credit checks or user testing? The answers reveal both process and pitfalls. By this point, some trust will be established—so you’ll get the real story.

Bringing It All Together

Not every question gets answered on the first call. Sometimes you’ll just earn the right to ask more. But keep coming back to these six questions throughout the sales process, especially as you talk to new contacts inside the prospect’s organization.

Hot tip: revisit old answers as the deal unfolds. Circumstances change, people shift, and solutions evolve. Keep pushing for fresh intel.

The Bottom Line

Filtering out interest from intent is the core of every winning sales process. These six questions separate real opportunities from dead ends.

“The lead has to earn the right to become a prospect, and the prospect has to earn the right to become a qualified prospect.”

That’s how to stop chasing ghosts and start closing business with confidence and integrity.

Mark Hunter :
I’m going to share with you today six questions that you need to ask every prospect, and you need to ask them early on. Waiting to ask is only going to get you in trouble. It’s going to waste your time, and it’s going to waste the prospects time. That’s the topic. Show begins right now. You’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman, sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your heads. Okay, I’m going to share with you the six questions that you need to ask your prospects.

Mark Hunter :
Hey, these are not questions that you make assumptions about. These are not questions that I think I know how the customer does this. No, you need to ask them. Here’s why. Too many times what happens is we make an assumption, oh, they fit your icp, the prospect fits your icp, so therefore, they must be a prospect. Wrong again, Cowboy cowgirls, not the case. You have got to ask them, because otherwise what happens is you wind up getting too far down the path before you begin asking them these questions, and you either wind up cutting off. Okay, which is fine, because again.

Mark Hunter :
Oh, wait a minute. Hold it. You wasted their time. You wasted your time. Or you try to keep moving the sale forward to actually close. And the only way that you close is you give away the farm. Absolutely fatal mistake. Six questions that you need to ask because just because they’re part of your icp, that does not mean that there’s somebody who you should be spending time with right now.

Mark Hunter :
Because here’s what I find. It is too easy to wind up with prospects who have interest. I’ve got to get to prospects who have intent, and that’s what makes them qualified. Question number one that you ask. What problem are you trying to solve? You’ve got to ask the customer, hey, why? What’s the problem? What’s the challenge you’re facing? And your whole objective through the sales process is to get them to expand on that so you understand the full magnitude of it, because that’s what you’re going to build your value proposition around. But you got to find out right at the beginning what’s the problem? Because here’s what I’ve also said. If the problem they have is not significant enough, then they’re not going to try to solve it. You see, again, this is interest versus intent.

Mark Hunter :
This is why. The critical question is, what problem are you trying to solve? Second question. Why now? What makes this so important? Now this is really critical, and I don’t care if it’s B2B or B2C. Now, you know, the majority of my work, majority of clients, I work with her in the B2B space. And this is critical because here’s the whole thing. The purchase that you’re looking for the customer to make, in other words, you’re looking for them to invest with you. Great. Is undoubtedly going to probably facilitate something else downstream.

Mark Hunter :
And you got to understand what’s the magnitude of that. You see, by asking, why now I can begin to understand how important it is because again, you know, what problem are you trying to solve? That was question number one. Question number two is, why now? Because now I begin to understand the urgency. Because when the customer says, well, we need this in order to upgrade this, we need this to do this. We need do this to be able to fulfill these orders. Now I’m beginning to understand the urgency. Because remember, you have to have a need, and there has to be an urgency, an importance for the customer to buy, for them to buy. And again, this is the difference between interest and intent.

Mark Hunter :
Question number three. What happens if nothing changes? Whoa, now, here’s the deal. I see too many salespeople blowing past this question because they just assume if the customer has expressed to them what the interest is and the customer has expressed to them that they need to make the decision now that they’re going to make the decision. But remember, the number one competitor we face is the customer making no decision. That. That’s right. That’s our number one competitor. So I got to understand, what are the ramifications if nothing changes because they may have an existing supplier, they may have an existing workaround solution, they may be in the process of doing some other things to be able to find an alternative approach to solving the problem.

Mark Hunter :
This is why I got to ask the question, what happens if nothing changes? Because I got to understand, have they looked at other options? Is there a workaround? Is there a current supplier? I’ve got to understand all those pieces. And again, don’t make assumptions. I see this with salespeople. What they do is they, well, I know they’re currently buying from this company. Hey, you don’t know what the relationship is that they have with this company, this competitor of yours. You see, I’ve got to understand because what happens if nothing changes? There. There may be a real problem happening between the customer you’re trying to sell to and the vendor that’s currently supplying them. And you got to understand that.

Mark Hunter :
And this is why you’re doing. Now, the reason these questions are also so important is because it demonstrates your interest in the customer. It demonstrates that you are absolutely wired in on them and you want to make sure that you’re using their time wisely and you’re using your time wisely. Which takes me to question number four. Who else is involved? Absolutely critical. Whenever you’re talking with a customer, it is always amazing at how they elevate their status. They elevate their importance. It almost always happens.

Mark Hunter :
This is especially true if you’re dealing with procurement. They’re going to say nobody. But see, what I want to understand is who else is involved. And I’ve got a question coming up. Number six. Stick around for number six, because it’s the one that’s going to really drive home on this. Because I want to understand who else is involved. Because it’s absolutely imperative that I begin creating relationships with these people or these departments sooner than later.

Mark Hunter :
Because if I wait till I’m too far down the road, what happens is I wind up presenting my value proposition to the person I’ve been dealing with. And that person then says, oh, I got to go take it to so and so, so and so. You see who else is involved? What I’m looking for, what I’m looking for is who’s the economic buyer, who is the person that’s going to pull the trigger and actually finance, who’s got control of the budget. And then what I’m looking for and who else is involved is I’m looking for who are the people who are going to prove, in other words, the people that. That validate performance, that validate specs, that, that. That really ultimately have to sign off on it to make sure that it fits everything in the organization. And then there’s undoubtedly the user, the person who’s going to benefit from it. That chances are, is who you’re talking to.

Mark Hunter :
But see, if you don’t know who those other two people are, then you’re in trouble. Question number five. I love question number five. What does success look like? Now, this is not a softball question. This is a hardball question. Because I’m asking this and I want to get an answer from two perspectives. One, what does success look like for the person who I’m speaking to? Great. I want to understand how valid, how critical, how important this is to their future.

Mark Hunter :
But I also want to know what does success look like for the company? Because if I can begin to understand what success looks like for the company, I have a great ability. I have a great ability to begin to understand who and what. Question number six. How have you solved problems like this in the past? I love this question. And what I’m doing here is I’m trying to figure out and I’m trying to understand what is the. The whole background, the process that they go through. Do they go through validation of technical. Do they go through a testing process? Do they go through where procurement has to do credit checks and all this sort of stuff? I want.

Mark Hunter :
I want to go through all of those insights, all of that information. And this is incredibly important because now when I do this, I begin to understand. Okay, here it is. Now, reason I asked this question last, 6, is for a very simple reason. By the time I get to question number six, and you don’t have to do them in a perfect order like what I’ve done here, but the reason I like number six is because chances are by this time, the customer is going to have a level of trust with you, they’re going to have a level of confidence with you, and they’re going to share with you real information. Now, do I need to ask all six of these questions on. On the initial call? No. No.

Mark Hunter :
Chances are you’re not going to be able to. The first call that you make, the first conversation you have is, is. Is probably just to earn the right to be able to have a second call. Right? That. That’s probably all it is. You know, you’re probably going to be able to ask that first question, maybe the first one and two questions in there. Okay. In terms of the first call, but many times it’s only the first one.

Mark Hunter :
That’s it. And here’s what I found. If I can ask these questions on the first call, and we’ll say I’m in a long sales process, what I want to do is I want to come back and ask these questions again. And as I begin talking with other people in the organization, I’m going to ask these same questions, and I may ask. Get different answers. Now, at this point, I’m probably moving more into the sales process. But here’s why I like these six questions, because it validates. You see, in my book, the.

Mark Hunter :
The lead has to earn the right to become a prospect, and the prospect has to earn the right to become a qualified prospect. And it’s only at the point that they are a qualified prospect that I will begin to sell them. But remember, even when I sell them, I’m still looking at question number three. What happens if nothing changes? Because depending on the length of time it goes through, the process goes through, they may come up with different solutions. They may come up with different ideas. Question number four. Who else is involved? I’ve got. I’ve got to continuously bring that question up, not only in the prospecting phase, but through the selling phase.

Mark Hunter :
Why? Because new people may come and others may go. Okay, what I’ve done here is I’ve shared with you six questions. Now, again, they fit your icp. You’re not spending time with anybody who doesn’t fit your icp. But just because they fit your ICP does not necessarily mean that they have intent. They may just have interest. These six questions are designed to do one thing, to help you validate their intent. I talk about these questions and a whole lot more in my book, Integrity.

Mark Hunter :
First selling. I want you to pick up a copy. I want you to dig into it. I had a conversation yesterday with a person who got into it, and already they were only two chapters into it and called me and said, wow, it’s changing how I run sales meetings. Yes, it’s that strong of a book. My name’s Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Two episodes a week, one like this, where we unpack a single topic. Second episode is where we do a deep dive with a subject matter expert.

Mark Hunter :
The show is here to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. Hey, would you do me a favor? Leave me a review on your favorite podcast app, Would you? Because I’ll tell you what, reviews on podcast apps are absolutely critical for driving the algorithms to get the show out to more people. Hey, I’m Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Reach out if you have any questions, because if. If this triggered something with you, call me. Let’s talk. Every day. I’m talking to companies every day.

Mark Hunter :
I’m talking to salespeople, and I’m constantly on the road speaking at sales meetings, to sales teams. Great selling.

Adapting to the Pace of Change

Selling today isn’t what it used to be. According to Meridith Elliot Powell, “the pace of change has increased 183%,” and nearly half of Fortune 500 companies aren’t expected to survive another decade. Most teams are feeling burnt out and overwhelmed, and that isn’t changing soon.

But uncertainty isn’t just something to weather. It can be a competitive weapon. As Meridith put it, “If you can view uncertainty and change as opportunity, you are going to be way ahead in the marketplace.”

Three Steps to Thriving in Uncertainty

Meridith boils it down to three actionable steps:

1. Adapt Your Perspective
   Decide that change leads to opportunity, even if it’s not easy. Condition your mind to expect success and see adversity as fuel for growth.
2. Root in Core Values
   Know who you are and what matters most. “If you say your family is important to you, then time better be scheduled on a regular basis to prioritize that time with your family.”
3. Get in Shape for Change
   Treat navigating change like a marathon. Build the stamina needed for a constantly shifting market by training your brain and habits to spot opportunities amidst chaos.

Mindset Before Tactics

Success in turbulent markets starts with mental conditioning. Meridith recommends reading your personal vision three times a day—morning, lunch, and before shutting down at night. Even on tough days, coming back to your vision keeps you grounded. “My brain will go to the negative, and you have to bring it back.”

Customers Need Salespeople More Than Ever

In times of chaos, most sellers retreat, afraid of customer rejection or tough conversations. But Meridith stresses that this is when clients need help the most.

“Salespeople pull out of a troubled marketplace because they’re focused on themselves. Stop focusing on yourself and start focusing on how you could really help people.”

Sales professionals should be the calming, consultative presence for clients, helping them revisit their vision and discover new opportunities even when fear and uncertainty rule the day. Creating loyalty happens when you show up during customers’ toughest hours.

Short-Term Panic or Long-Term Focus?

When markets get shaky, the instinct to push for short-term wins is strong. But as Meridith sees it, pressure for immediate results doesn’t serve salespeople or their customers. Instead, focus on sustainable activity: continue building relationships, having conversations, and solving real problems.

Switching Industries or Changing Products?

The temptation to jump to a new product or industry during market shifts is real. But don’t guess from inside your boardroom. The answers are with your customers. Meridith highlights Procter & Gamble’s strategy during the Great Depression: by listening to cash-strapped customers, they introduced new, affordable products and thrived.

Stay close to customers, your network, and your own team. They’ll tell you what’s missing and where the real growth opportunities lie.

Don’t Race to the Bottom on Price

Uncertain times don’t automatically make customers price-driven. In fact, Meridith argues, “People are less price sensitive in an uncertain marketplace than they are at any other time.”

Clients want value since they’re careful spenders. But they’ll invest in quality, trust, and outcomes. Cut price only when value is not clear, never as the default strategy.

Reset the Sales Strategy

What worked last year may be outdated today. Many sellers must double their activity just to land the same number of deals, but more important than sheer volume is identifying where deals are getting stuck. Diagnose what isn’t working (whether that’s targeting, prospecting, or closing) and fix the real problem.

When one industry is dead, find a “sister industry” where your expertise still applies. Sellers need to be agile enough to follow opportunity wherever it pops up.

Disruption as a Competitive Advantage

The marketplace will keep shifting. Those who choose to see disruption as a door to opportunity and who consistently show up for customers win.

Sales teams today need stamina, perspective, and the courage to lead customers through uncertainty. That’s what makes sales an extraordinary profession—especially right now.

Mark Hunter :
How equipped are you to deal with all of the uncertainty and all of the change in the marketplace? Selling today has never been more different than ever before. With me today, Meridith Elliott Powell. And the show begins right now.

Meridith Elliott Powell :
You’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now, here’s your host.

Mark Hunter :
And it’s great when you have as your guest the person who does the voice over for the intro. Welcome, Meridith Elliott Powell.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah, I thought that sounded just, that voice sounded just a little bit familiar.

Mark Hunter :
Yes, it did. Hey, first of all to the audience, Meridith Elliott Powell. She is my co host, my partner on Sales Logic. So it’s great to be able to have her here. She travels literally all over the world. She just told me she just booked a deal in Morocco. She was just in Thailand. Let’s see, Helsinki, London.

Mark Hunter :
She is absolutely a person on demand. And all of her conversation, all of her work is really around helping people deal with change and uncertainty, which is going on in sales. So, okay, give us the 62nd version. No, the 10 second version. How do we deal with this? What’s going on out there?

Meridith Elliot Powell :
So, you know, market is. So the statistics are just off the chart. I mean, the pace of change has increased 183%, 45% of Fortune 500 companies are not expected to be here. And in the next 10 years, employee burnout is 4 out of 5 employees are burned out, overwhelmed, and just feel like they can’t keep up with any more change. And more change is coming. So that really put me on a mission to want to help people learn to turn uncertainty to competitive advantage. And what I’ve really nailed it down to is you got to get in shape for change. You got to treat change like it’s a marathon, like it’s a sprint, like it’s, you’ve got to build muscle because you’re getting older, whatever it is.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
But we know change is coming. So the more prepared we are for change, the more in shape we are for change, the more you’re going to be able to turn change to competitive advantage. Because the last thing I’ll say about that is if you can view uncertainty and change as opportunity, you are going to be way ahead in the marketplace.

Mark Hunter :
Okay, so give us the secret sauce. How do we prepare for this change?

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah, so I’ve really, you know, Mark, I’ve been researching this since 2016. Right. I’ve been obsessed with why some companies grow during the Great Depression. Others disappear. I just told you that 45% of Fortune 5 hundreds are expected not to be here. I want to know why some won’t be here and others will, like, what are they really doing differently? And I’ve really nailed it down to just three steps, just three little things that you need to do. And number one is you need to adapt your perspective. You just need to make the decision that change leads to.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
To opportunity. Now, that sounds really simple, and it is simple. It’s just not easy. But to do it, you. You kind of, you. You take three steps in order to do that. Number one is you need to have a vision. I mean, Mark, you talk so often about how you start your day and you’ve got to start your day focused and training your brain that good things are going to happen for you.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
So let’s imagine I got up this morning and I lost two deals that I had in my pipeline. I’ve got to go back to this vision that reminds me that I’m successful, that I’m going to be on stages around the world, that I’m going to be happily married. I’m going to be in the best shape all of my life. I’m going to be financially stable. Like, I’ve got to refocus my brain in those places because if I don’t, my brain will find ways to validate whatever it is that I’m thinking. The second piece of it is in Mark, you talk so often about this with integrity for selling is you’ve got to be rooted in your core values. Your core values. You say often.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
You’ve got to play the long game. Well, if you want to thrive in uncertainty, you have to play the long game. You’ve got to be clear about who you are, what you value, and what’s important to you. So if you say your family is important to you, then. Then time better be scheduled on a regular basis to prioritize that time with your family. Being present for your customers is really important. Then you better not be on your phone texting anybody when a customer has you on a, on a zoom call or something. So that’s where we begin with adapting our perspective and just deciding that uncertainty leads to opportunity.

Mark Hunter :
Okay. You really focused in there on mindset and, and really how you do it. Because again, it. It, You’re. You have to prepare yourself before you can deal with change. Okay, how does this transcend to customers? Because again, customers are going through chaos. And your number that you shared 45 of all Fortune 500 companies are going to be gone.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah, they expect them and not because they make bad products, not because they have bad people on the team, but simply because they’re not agile and adaptable. They’re not. They’re not following the steps that I talk about. That you need to. That you need to. You need to put into place if you want to. If you want to thrive in, you know, thrive in uncertainty. But mindset is critically important.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
In fact, when I speak about it from the stage, I always say to people, if you can’t get your head right, like, and it isn’t, you know, I can wake up this morning and say, oh, my gosh, I feel great. I’m. You know, I see a really bright future for myself. But that can’t be the only time I focus on my vision, because things will happen today that won’t be positive. And in uncertainty, you have more obstacles in front of you than you do in certain times. So I call it conditioning your brain. Like, I read my vision three times a day. I do it in the morning, I do it at lunch.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
I do it before I shut my office down at night. And the reason is because my brain will go to the negative, and you have to bring it back. The interesting thing about uncertainty is that if you read history or you read about people who have accomplished unbelievable things, they will tell you that the adversity they faced was what propelled them to the next level. But again, it’s so simple, it isn’t easy to embrace it, because nobody likes to go through the tough stuff.

Mark Hunter :
Wow. And I remember a book that you wrote where you chronicled a number of companies that had. Had survived the Civil War, survived World War I, World War II. And you share a number of those stories, and each one ends with how it made them better. Okay, so, gee, let’s sign up for the chaos process, because it’s going to suck, but we’re going to come out of it better. It doesn’t sound like a plan salespeople really want to do. So. Okay, so let me.

Mark Hunter :
Let me ask you this. You got a customer that’s going through absolute chaos, absolute change. How do you, as a salesperson, help them?

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah. You first of all know that they need you now more than they needed you before. I think one of the most interesting things about a chaotic environment is most salespeople pull back. And they pull back because customers are going to be problematic. They’re going to be challenging. There’s going to be more rejection in a marketplace like that because there’s fear in a marketplace like that. But the truth is, customers need you more when the marketplace is uncertain. So, you know, you talk a lot about this with integrity selling, and that is that you’ve got to be the calming voice.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
So what I love about the formula that I created is that it’s for you, for your business. But whenever I speak with sales audiences, I always say to them, look, this is the formula I want you to take to your customer. I want you to take to your customer and say, I realize it is challenging right now. I realize that you have supply chain disruption. I realize that you are greatly impacted by the gas prices going up. But let’s go back to the vision, what you’re trying to do with this company. Let’s focus on that. Then.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Let’s talk about how we can redesign your value proposition. What you’re really focused on, the problems that you’re solving. Let’s find the opportunity in the middle of this chaos. So I feel like as a salesperson, you’re uniquely positioned to help people navigate that marketplace. And you talk about creating loyalty. I think that salespeople pull out of a troubled marketplace because they’re, they’re focused on themselves. I don’t want to get rejected. I don’t want to get beat up about my price.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
I don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to get put off on decision. Stop focusing on yourself and start focusing on how you could really help people. And if you focus there, you’re going to be incredibly successful.

Mark Hunter :
I like that approach. What you’re really saying is to be the calm voice with your customers, because again, I mean, do customers want to hear from panicking people? No, they’re panicking already. They don’t need to hear more panic. But if you can come in as that calm voice, how does this impact a salesperson, though, both in the short term and then, hey, I gotta make my number this quarter and the long term.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah, what a great question. So, first of all, I think that when the marketplace gets really uncertain and it gets shaky, you cannot be short term focused. And the reason you can’t be short term focused is because there’s so much going on in the marketplace that you can’t, that you can’t control. In fact, I was thinking about this the other day. I’ve got a month coming up. I was sharing with you guys on the Mastermind last night. It’s, it’s really, there’s not very much. I don’t have much happening on that month.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
And my initial instinct is to go, oh, my God, I got to fill that month. I got to fill that Month. I got to fill that month when the truth is I just need to let it go. The month didn’t fill up. I don’t know why, I don’t know what is going on there. I just need to keep doing what I’m doing, that is filling the other months in the calendar. Because the moment that I put pressure on a short term result, I get focused on my own needs, my rather than my customer needs. And if I’m focused on my own needs rather than my customer needs, two things are going to happen.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
One, that does not feel good for any salesperson. There’s so much pressure when you put pressure on yourself for a short term result. The second is it isn’t sustainable. I, you know, I could probably get a couple of things on the calendar. I can probably muscle a couple of people to let me do a little bit of business with them, but it isn’t good for them and it isn’t good for me in the long term. It’s going to hurt my reputation.

Mark Hunter :
Thank you for saying that. Because it’s so easy for people to get short term focused. I mean, we all, we all, we all do. I mean, I’ve been victim of that many, many times. Because you want to just kind of get this. And we’re goal driven. You want to achieve this goal. So here’s the challenge though.

Mark Hunter :
In this chaotic world that we’re in, should salespeople be looking at, you know, maybe I need to focus in on a different industry. Maybe I need to, you know, change my product offering. What’s the advice that you share with, with salespeople and companies when that idea is kind of on the table?

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah. So the thing that I. One of the most important strategies in thriving in uncertainty is a strategy number two. And strategy number two is to focus on people. And the reason we tell you to focus on people is because you cannot have the answers to one of the biggest mistakes I see people is they sit around a boardroom trying to figure out how to thrive in uncertainty when the truth is the answers lie outside of that boardroom. And one of the most important groups of people you need to listen to are your customers. Your customers are complaining, they’re talking, they’re sharing information, they’re telling you what their biggest problems are. And so great example is that it’s if, if you listen to the customer, they’ll tell you whether there’s a new product they need or a new product they want developed.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
They’ll tell you if the industry is shifting and it’s stalling. Right now and it’s not good to sell in anymore. One of my favorite stories from the book is about Procter and Gamble and in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the core value of, of one of the core values of Procter and Gamble, again, adapt perspective, know your values. Their core value is listening to customers. They don’t ever put a market that they don’t listen to customers. And in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, they were listening to customers. And what customers were saying was, we can’t afford your products or services. They’re too expensive.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
We’re like pinching pennies here. And they developed this whole line of products that. Do you remember? Anybody remembers drift detergent? And it was developed in the 1930s because it was a less expensive, high quality product that people could afford during the Great Depression. So I can’t tell you whether you need to change your product or service. I can’t tell you whether you need to get into a different industry. But the people you need to be listening to, your customers, your network and your team. The path to growth and profitability in an uncertain marketplace is through listening to people.

Mark Hunter :
I love that. Just get out and have the conversations with people now. When we get into uncertain times, get into chaos, it’s also, oh, we got to reduce price, we got to cut price. Talk about that. Is, is that a viable strategy? How do you talk people off the cliff on that? Because I can’t stand it. I hate cutting price because then I’m just giving up margin.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah.

Mark Hunter :
What are your thoughts?

Meridith Elliot Powell :
So I think it is a myth that people are price sensitive. In fact, I think it’s a myth. I think people are less price sensitive in an uncertain marketplace than they are at any other time. I really do. I think, I think when things get really tight, people are willing to spend money, but they, they, it’s, they seem price sensitive because they’re, they’re more protective of where and how they spend money. So they don’t want to waste money. And so they’re not. If they’re comparing price to price, it’s because they feel like price is all that you have to, all that you have to offer.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
So I’ll give you a great example. Marketplace isn’t great right now. You know, the market keeps going down. Who knows what’s going to happen with inflation and gas prices. And we can’t seem to solve this whole issue going on with, you know, TSA and travel and the impact of that is going to be terrible on the economy. Well, my husband’s looking to PAVE the driveway. And we had three people come in to give us a proposal. One was reduced, ridiculously less expensive.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
But the biggest things my husband is concerned about is he doesn’t want to have to do it again for another 10 years. He wants people he could trust to come to the house when we’re not here, because we’re constantly gone. Either I’m traveling, or he’s off doing activities. And he wants somebody whose workers are going to show up. They’re polite, they’re kind, and he doesn’t mind leaving in his house. He didn’t go with the highest bidder, but he went with the middle bidder because the middle bidder, not because he was a middle bid, but because he offered, like, part of his proposal was those things. He would be on the job site every single day. He would guarantee the job for the next, you know, the next 10 years.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
And he was recommended to us by people in our neighborhood who have given them keys to his house. So you have to sell. Why? People are paying you more money, and they will pay more money if that’s of value to them.

Mark Hunter :
Because ultimately they. That company was meeting your husband and your expectations of what you were looking for. And. And again, this is. This is the fallacy. I think people just cut price. Oh, if I cut the price, I’ll be able to get the sale. No, no.

Mark Hunter :
Because so many times there’s other factors in there. Yeah. So here’s the challenge of if. If I’m a salesperson and. Or, you know, sales leader, and I am really struggling to make this year’s number. What are the strategies? What are the things that I should be doing to be able to navigate when I’ve got. I’m selling into a space that, you know what, it’s tough. It’s brutal.

Mark Hunter :
They are just getting beat up. And these customers, I don’t even know if they’re going to be around. What’s the advice you would share to that sales leader, that salesperson?

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Well, I think if you’re using the exact same sales strategy you were using in 2025, your sales strategies out of your date. So I don’t know what your number is, but I think one of the most important things to do with a number is back into it. I mean, I don’t know about you, Mark, but the number of sales calls that I had to make last year to close a deal has doubled for this year. I mean, I have doubled the amount of time I spend finding leads and selling than I did last year because the marketplace is tighter this year. So that’s, to me, that’s where you need to start. Take a really long list of the long inventory of the first quarter. What worked, what markets were open, what, what, what did you say to customers that got them to buy, to be interested in you or whatever. Learn from yourself.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
The second is what isn’t working. And if you’re far off your number, you’re not, you’re either not calling on the right people, you’re not, you’re not making enough sales calls. Where is it getting stuck in the process? Are you not even getting through the door? Or can you not get a deal to close? Like, where’s the, where’s the hiccup? And focus your, your, you know yourself there. Like don’t double your sales calls if you’re not even getting through the door to have a decision. Something’s broken on the front end of the sales cycle. And if the, you know, if the market that you’re selling into is really dead right now, like let’s take 2008 and if you sold into financial services, it’s time to sell to a sister industry. So I don’t know what industry you’re selling into. And if that industry is truly struggling right now, look to a sister industry, an industry that is like them.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Like in 2008, I got out of financial services, started selling into insurance. It was like enough that I was credit credible there, but the industry wasn’t going through the same amount of pain.

Mark Hunter :
I like what you’re saying there. You know, it’s okay to move into a new industry, kind of going back to what you had shared, what you had shared earlier, but it’s got to be something similar. So in other words, you still got traction, you’ve still got probably some relationships, you probably, probably know what is going on out there real quick. Final advice for salespeople in terms of going through this chaotic world we’re in.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah, I tell you just a couple of things. Number one is really start to believe that disruption and uncertainty can be your greatest competitive advantage. Always remember that the customers need you now more than they needed you a year ago. They are going to remember the salesperson who shows up. And if you set a vision, you focus on people and you get in shape for change, you are not only going to shift how you think, feel and act about uncertainty, but you will turn it in to your greatest competitive advantage.

Mark Hunter :
And what you just shared was a mic drop moment. Where do people get in touch with you at?

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Yeah, so they can find me on LinkedIn. That’s probably the social media channel I spend the most amount of time in. You can also reach out to me on value speaker.com just the words value speaker.com and I am a big believer. Build your network. It will change your life. So if you connect with me, I will connect with you.

Mark Hunter :
And of course we get to do sales.

Meridith Elliot Powell :
Sales Logic. Join us every Saturday morning, 8am Eastern where we’ll solve all of your sales challenges.

Mark Hunter :
Yeah, and it’s amazing how we get people listening to us from all over the world. It’s absolutely fantastic. You’ve been listening to the Sales Hunter podcast two episodes a week, one like this, where we do a deep dive with a subject matter expert. Second is where I just take one topic and unpack it. Why? It’s to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. And hey, share the podcast with other people. And if you have any needs in your organization from a sales perspective speaking, hey, reach out to Meridith. I’ll go ahead and offer up Meridith.

Mark Hunter :
Call Meridith. She’s absolutely fantastic. Call myself whatever. But sales is an absolutely beautiful profession. We’re out there helping people. I’m Mark Hunter. Great selling.

Salespeople know the feeling: the hopeful prospect goes silent, messages vanish into the void, calls aren’t returned, and you’re stuck wondering what you did wrong or why they disappeared. Ghosting is everywhere in sales today, but it isn’t a mystery. It’s feedback.

Here are 8 tips for how you turn silence into progress and stop wasting time chasing shadows.

1. Ghosting is a Lack of Perceived Value.

When a prospect goes dark, it’s not about luck, it’s about value. If they’re not getting back to you, they don’t see enough value in continuing the conversation. That’s on you, not them.

Too many sales teams shrug it off or blame “busy buyers.” Face the fact: ghosting means your message didn’t match their perceived outcome or need. You haven’t demonstrated enough value to earn their attention for the next step.

2. If They Disappear, You Didn’t Earn the Next Step.

Silence is the customer’s way of telling you that you haven’t earned the right to move forward. You might think you’ve laid out the facts, but if they vanish, you missed the mark.

B2B sales is a sequence. Each step in the process has to be earned. You don’t get a free pass just because you made contact or held a first meeting. If the conversation stops, ask yourself: what did I do to truly earn the next engagement?

3. Every Meeting Should End With a Clear Reason to Continue

Vague or open-ended conversations breed ghosting. Every touchpoint (emails or phone calls!) should have a specific purpose and end with a clear call to action.

Don’t just hope they’ll circle back. Always establish what comes next. Set a date, request feedback, ask them to review something specific. If there’s no clear reason for them to reply or meet again, don’t be surprised when they never do.

4. “I’ll Follow Up” Is Not a Next Step

Too many pipelines are clogged with prospects who are “on follow-up.” That’s not a commitment. “I’ll follow up” is not a next step. It’s a polite way to avoid confrontation or decision.

Be definitive. Nail down an exact time for the next call, a deliverable to review, or a specific topic to discuss. If you’re not clear on what happens next, neither are they.

5. Give Them Something to Think About After the Call

Engagement doesn’t end when the meeting ends. Give the prospect something of value to consider between conversations. It might be a resource, a case study, or a relevant insight, just make it something that sticks in their mind.

This keeps the relationship alive and gives them a reason to come back to you. Every interaction should add value, not just fill time.

6. No Urgency = No Response

If there’s no urgency, there’s no reason for the customer to respond. You can’t create urgency by sheer volume or pushiness. You create it by linking your solution to a real need.

Without urgency, you’re just another voice in their inbox. Make the next step matter to them, not just to you.

7. Weak Qualification Leads to Silent Pipelines

If your pipeline is full of names that rarely reply, your qualification is broken. Who you chase matters as much as how you chase them.

Stop stuffing the funnel with anyone willing to talk. Focus on prospects who truly fit your ideal customer profile and whose needs align with what you offer. Fewer, higher-quality leads beat a bloated, silent pipeline any day.

Read: Identify Your Ideal Customer Profile with these 7 Questions.

8. The Deal Didn’t Stall. They Checked Out!

Pipelines get clogged because deals aren’t progressing, or is it something else? In reality, those deals are dead. The prospect checked out already.

If a buyer isn’t engaging within a reasonable time, move on. It’s better to clear old prospects and spend your energy on motivated buyers with real intent.

Great Selling Is About Earning Every Step

You don’t get to close the sale by accident. Every step forward is earned by delivering value, setting clear next steps, and focusing on buyers who are ready, willing, and able.

Ghosting is feedback. Use it to get better.

Sell with intention. Sell with integrity. That’s how you win.

The most significant differentiator isn’t your product, price, or even your pitch—it’s your integrity.

Find it on Amazon!

Why Your Pipeline Looks Full But Nothing Is Closing

Learn to spot the difference between real opportunities and empty activity.

Find episode #411 wherever you download podcasts!

Mindset and Tactics for Salespeople Facing Turbulent Markets

w/ Meridith Elliott Powell

What if disruption could be your greatest advantage?

Episode #412 is out TOMORROW!!

Copyright 2026, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.

Stop Confusing Activity with Opportunity

A full pipeline feels good until nothing is closing. This is one of the most common traps in sales. If deals aren’t moving forward, it’s time to be honest about what’s really happening.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that lots of activity automatically means opportunity. Filling up your pipeline just to make yourself or your boss feel better creates more problems than it solves.

“Managers, cut the crap. You only want stuff in the pipeline that is going to have potential to close, period.”

Set Real Movement Expectations

Every deal in the pipeline needs to have momentum. If a deal isn’t advancing to the next stage within 30 to 45 days, it’s time to move it out or at least sideline it.

If the average sales process has five stages, every deal should advance at least one stage each cycle. Let stale deals sit, and they clog the system.

Chasing dead deals wastes valuable cycles. Send inactive opportunities over to your marketing list or simply take them out. The key is to focus only on those with real potential.

Intent Matters More Than Interest

Many prospects show interest but never commit to action. The difference between ‘interested’ and ‘intent’ is what separates deals that close from those that never will.

Ask pointed questions early:

• How have you made a decision like this in the past?
• Why is this important right now?
• Who else are you considering?
• What happens if you don’t solve this problem?

Getting to the intent quickly helps cut through the noise. If there’s no real intent, move on.

“Interest is everywhere. Intent is rare. Every deal should start with finding out if there’s real intent to make a change.”

Define a Clear Next Step

A sign of a deal that’s going somewhere: there’s always a clear, documented next step on the calendar, with the customer’s participation.

No next step? It’s not a real opportunity. Real deals involve customer engagement and action, not passive interest. Use customer input as your litmus test.

“If the customer is not willing to engage with you, you got to stop and ask yourself, is the opportunity real?”

Solve a Defined Problem, Or Move On

Ask hard questions until you’re clear on the prospect’s defined problem. For larger deals, seek confirmation from two or more people. If a solid business problem hasn’t been articulated, the deal isn’t real and it isn’t closing.

Don’t make assumptions. Every stage gate in your process should be based on specific evidence: defined problems with buy-in from real decision makers, not hopeful guesstimates.

If a prospect’s problem doesn’t match your solution, address it honestly. Offer the best alternative and keep the relationship for the future.

Clean Up and Focus

Go through every deal in your pipeline and ask:

• Is there a clear next step?
• Is the defined problem confirmed?
• Who did you hear it from?
• Is this just an assumption, or has it been validated by the customer?

The fewer—but better qualified—opportunities in the pipeline, the more attention each gets, and the higher the close rate.

Over time, aim for at least 25% close rate on qualified opportunities. As deals advance deeper, shoot for 60–65% closure. If a deal is stuck in one stage for too long, move it out. Don’t let your pipeline become a sewer pipe; keep it functioning like a water tap, moving deals swiftly from open to close.

Qualify With Truth—Not Hope

Assumptions ruin pipelines. Systems filled with wishful thinking leave everyone disappointed. Build a process anchored on concrete next steps and verified problems. That’s how pipelines convert to closed business.

Better to work a smaller, surgically qualified pipeline than babysit a bloated list of dead deals. That’s how sales teams hit their numbers again and again.

Mark Hunter :
Why does your pipeline look full but nothing is moving, let alone closing? Yeah, the syndrome of the full pipeline, but nothing is moving. That’s the topic. And the show begins right now. You’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman, sell with confidence and integrity. And now, here’s your host. While your pipeline looks full and nothing’s moving, let alone closing. Okay, I’m going to call out the elephant in the room. It’s not what we’re talking about, but I’m going to call out the elephant in the room.

Mark Hunter :
Do you have it full to keep your boss happy? Is it to keep your boss happy and that’s why you have it in there? Okay, if that’s the case, there’s a whole separate conversation that you need to have with your boss. And I’ll tell you what, I’ve got podcasts, I’ve got resources on my website to deal with this, because managers cut the crap. You only want stuff in the pipeline that is going to have potential to close, Period. Okay, let’s get to the subject. I’m off my rant. First of all, let’s not confuse activity with opportunity. Wrong again. Now, you know I love talking about activity.

Mark Hunter :
And I always say, hey, if you do enough activity, things are going to happen. And you’re right, it is. But make sure it’s the right activity with the right opportunities. You have got to line this up, because what I find happening is people will stuff their pipeline with stuff just to give them a warm and fuzzy feeling. It’s time to cut it out. I want you to have in your pipeline only. Only those opportunities that have a real potential. Closing now, what’s that real potential? It’s going to vary by industry, it’s going to vary by customer, it’s going to vary by territory.

Mark Hunter :
So I can’t really say. But what I’m saying is this, that if you have something in your pipeline, and we’ll say you have five stages, this is an easy way to measure if you have five stages in your pipeline, if it is not moving by at least one stage every 30 to 45 days, get it out of there, get it out, or at least park it off on the side, way off on the side, but get it out, because it’s all it’s going to do is it’s going to waste your time. In other words, if every 30 to 45 days at the max, it’s not moving a stage, so you have five steps in your selling process. Get it Out. Get it out. Move it. Move it over to your marketing list. If you’re a solopreneur, move it over somewhere else.

Mark Hunter :
But don’t waste your valuable cycles chasing those people, okay? Activity does not always equal opportunity. Here’s what I want you to dial in on. Are you doing activity with customers who have shown an interest, but there’s no intent? I’ve been on a soapbox on this for the last several months, and it’s very, very key because there’s a lot of people. And I do. I do this, too. I have had. I have had people, salespeople reaching out to me because there’s, yeah, I’ve got a level of interest, but there’s no level of intent. So I’ve got to be asking difficult questions right up front.

Mark Hunter :
Hey, how have you made a decision like this in the past? Why is this important? Who else have you been talking to? What are some other solutions? What happens if you don’t solve this issue? I want you asking questions like this upfront early on. Now, you notice I wasn’t talking about budget necessarily, because budget’s really not typically an issue. Now, capital expenditure items and so forth, they may have to be budget and so forth, but that’s a separate issue. Okay? But what I’m saying is I got to find out if there’s a level of intent. Because if there’s a level of intent and the issue is strong enough, then you bet my activity is going to help me create an opportunity for the customer. Now, activity can also consist of just getting to know the customer. So again, I’m going to do that right up front. I’m going to do that right up front because I got to understand the customer, to understand who they are, how they operate, et cetera, et cetera.

Mark Hunter :
But then I’ve got to quickly pivot to now beginning to determine as to whether or not there is intent. Now, along the way, what are you doing? You’re creating trust. You’re creating a level of confidence. Oh, you’re demonstrating integrity. You’re demonstrating integrity because you’re putting the customer first. Because here’s the whole thing. We have to realize that we are selling to the customer on the buyer’s timeline, not the salesperson’s timeline, period. Now, there are too many industries that have been hijacked by salespeople.

Mark Hunter :
Automotive industry, I mean, how many automobile dealers wind up having big sales at the end of the month because they got to make their quota? They got to make their quota. Salespeople guilty of this, too. And I used to when I was in corporate America, end of the quarter, got to sell more. So I’m not talking about this. What I’m talking about is true intent. That’s the opportunity. Now here’s the whole thing. Does the deal in your pipe have a clear next step? In other words, what is the next step that you’re taking them through? In other words, you’ve got this opportunity in your pipeline and you have a clear next step.

Mark Hunter :
My clear next step is to get a meeting with so and so. My clear next step is to go visit this location. My next step is that they’re going to send me this information. In other words, a clear next step. This is absolutely key. What I’m looking for is I’m looking for customer participation. This is key. If the customer is not willing to engage with you, you got to stop and ask yourself, is the opportunity real? If the customer is willing to engage with you, this shows that there’s some intent.

Mark Hunter :
So I’m looking for that. I don’t hesitate when I’m dealing with a customer to sit there and say, hey, take a look at this and let me know your thoughts and opinions. And I can use whether or not they respond back to me with their comments and thoughts as to whether or not this is a valid opportunity. It’s a real quick way to help me determine. Now, it’s not perfect. None of these ideas I share with you are absolutely perfect. But what I’m doing is I’m asking you to make sure that there is a next step. Because if there’s not a next step, you just got this thing parked in your pipeline to keep yourself happy.

Mark Hunter :
Next piece is you’ve got to make sure that there is a defined problem. Is there a defined problem? Because again, if you have not been able to find out from them what their defined problem is, that’s why I love asking the questions I share with you at the beginning. What happens if you don’t solve this? What are the other options you’re looking at? Why is this issue so important? Why now? Why are we talking now and not a year or two from now? You’ve got to be able to ascertain what the defined problem is and what I’m looking for with the defined problem, if it’s any size of a deal, I’m looking to hear it from two different people. Two different people. Now this is really key, especially if you’re in capital expenditure, you may need to go to three, four different people within the company. The reason being is this one person may say it’s critical. But unless they’re the economic buyer, the one that can pull the trigger, who really cares? And chances of you reaching the economic buyer right out of the chute, probably not there. Unless it’s a small company and you’re dealing with the owner, the CEO, something of that nature.

Mark Hunter :
So what does this mean? This means you have got to back up the bus here and you’ve got to really make sure that you understand what the defined problem is. And then you’ve got to figure out if your solution is the right solution and how is your solution going to be better than other options out there. In other words, I’m, I’m, I’m already going through this now. I, that doesn’t mean I take it out of my pipeline, but I got to be thinking, because again, is this going to really move forward? Because they may have defined the problem and I just can’t, I just can’t address it. So what I may do is I may have to say, hey, there’s a better solution for you and it’s over here. Now, does that mean I dropped the relationship? No, I’m going to keep the relationship because chances are there’s something else I can help them with. And this is, this is absolutely key. So stay in the game with them.

Mark Hunter :
But here’s the thing. If there’s no defined problem, there’s certainly no intent. And that means all the AR is interested. And I’m sorry, but I don’t get paid to have conversations with people who are just interested and want to take my time. I’m interested in a lot of topics, I’m interested in a lot of things, but is the salesperson going to be willing to spend time with me on that? No, because it’s not of intent. Stop and ask yourself this question. I want you to go back and I want you to look at every deal in your pipeline right now. I want you to go back and look at every deal you have in your, in your pipe.

Mark Hunter :
And I want you to ask yourself this question, do I have a very clear next step? Sales managers, you’re listening to this. This is something you, you’re going in to your CRM system, looking at your people and looking at their notes and saying, okay, what’s the clear next step? This is why go back. And I said, you know, if you have a five step selling process, what are the gates they got to go through to move to each one? So I got to understand what’s the clear next step? Okay. And then I got to really ask myself, do we have clarity as to what the defined problem is. Now, sales managers, if you’re listening to this, the piece you want to look for is the defined problem. And why and who did the salesperson hear it from? No assumptions. Salespeople get themselves into trouble when they play this game of assumptions on the defined problem. I think this is what the problem is until I hear it from the customer.

Mark Hunter :
And like I said earlier, I’m listening for it from two people. Two people that this is what their defined problem is. Then I know that, okay, I got something, something to go with, or minimally, if it’s a smaller business, we’ll say, and it’s one person making the decisions. Am I hearing them talk about that defined problem twice on two different meetings, two different occasions? This is key. This is absolute key. You see, the whole thing here is I want to qualify based on truth, not hope. I should say qualify based on truth, not assumptions. Salespeople are notorious for making assumptions in their pipeline that are just that, assumptions.

Mark Hunter :
Now, they do this. Salespeople do this because, oh, I work in this industry, and all these companies are very, very similar. This company’s got this problem. So therefore this company’s got this problem. You don’t know. They may have that problem. So it may make them interested, but it doesn’t give them intent. So now what? I want to come back and I want to look at this.

Mark Hunter :
So now I’ve gone through and, and, and, and I’ve cleaned up my pipeline. Now I can get down to a very methodical, systematic approach of how I’m going to be reaching out to you. Now, this is what’s key here. The fewer people I have in my pipeline, the more qualified they’re going to be, and that means I can spend more time with them. Let’s back up the bus. You’ve got leads. Okay, fine. They’re at that, that level one of your selling process.

Mark Hunter :
I’m not talking about those. You can, you can have those all you want. Have those all you want. But you got to figure out if they don’t get to 2, 3, 4, and 5, get them out of you in stage one, move them over to your marketing list. But once they hit this qualified stage, and again, there needs to be a method. You need to have this very well mapped out. And again, listen to some of my podcast terms of how you reach out to prospects, et cetera, et cetera, then you can begin to say, okay, are they in two, three? Remember, they’re not moving every 30 to 45 days. And that’s at the most, for some of you who are selling consumables, short sales cycle, it may be every two weeks.

Mark Hunter :
For some of you who are capital expenditures, it may be closer to every couple of months. That’s okay. Every three months even. It’s okay. So you get. But. But if it’s not moving, get rid of it. Because what you’re going to wind up with is you’re going to wind up with a sewer pipe.

Mark Hunter :
My whole objective is I want my pipeline to look like a water tap. When it looks like a water tap, as soon as I have them qualified, these leads qualified, they are moving through and they’re moving through with a fairly high regard. What’s the close ratio? It’s going to again, vary by industry, but once I get a qualified prospect, I should be able to close at least 25% of those deals. And again, it’s going to vary by industry. Once you get to stage three, once you get to stage four, it should get up to about 60 to 65% because there’ll be ones that will fall out along the way. Totally understand that. But this is going to help you manage your pipeline much more effectively. Hey, my name is Mark Hunter, the sales Hunter.

Mark Hunter :
I’m walking you through in this podcast, the Sales Hunter podcast. Specific steps that you need to be doing and it’s all done with integrity. Have you bought my book? Have you picked up my book? Integrity first selling. Hey, buy it for your entire sales team. Reach out to me, because I love doing kind of what I call Integrity first selling unplugged, where I just come on a zoom call teams call and discuss the book. In fact, I’m doing one of these later on today. Yes, if you’re having a sales meeting, I want to be speaking at your sales meeting. Reach out.

Mark Hunter :
If you need training, reach out. My whole objective is to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. That’s what the Sales Hunter podcast is all about. That means you better subscribe to it so you get every episode. I’m Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Great selling.

It’s Not About the Seller’s Journey

Too many sellers focus on their process and timing, thus missing the mark on what really matters. The buyer is in control now, not the salesperson.

“We think about too much of ourselves versus, as you said, truly understanding what the customer, the client, potential client is going through.”

Modern sales success is about meeting buyers where they are. That means knowing what prompts their intent, not just noticing their interest. It’s about having real insight into when buyers are actually ready to take action.

Intent Beats Interest Every Time

A pipeline packed with leads means little if you don’t know which ones are real. Frank explained how his team filters thousands of potential prospects down to those most likely to buy:

“It’s like trying to go out on a date and tell the person, well, hey, I want to marry you on the first date. No, we’re still trying to understand who that person is, what their thought pattern is, what’s their likes or dislikes.”

Instead of rushing to close, the priority is to be present and helpful well before buyers raise their hands. Timing matters, and so does patience. Sales pros who step in early, offer value, and simply stay in touch are top of mind when real intent appears.

Stand Out by Being Different

With automation everywhere, most customers recognize a sales pitch from a mile away. The key isn’t to be louder, it’s to be different. Frank suggested flipping the script:

“Everybody’s reading the same sales books, going through the same pitch. I want to do something different to stand out from the crowd.”

Instead of hard selling, offer insights, tips, or humor that sets you apart. Even educational emails—think “5 ways to pick out your next speaker”—build trust and authority. The result: when the buyer is ready, you’re their trusted choice.

Focus on the Right Opportunities

Not every lead is a good lead. The best sales teams zero in on their ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). Research, filter, and focus on those whose problems you can actually solve, and who are willing to pay for your expertise.

“Who has the problem that you solve? And more importantly, of those people where you can solve their problem, who’s willing to pay for it?”

A small, high-quality list beats a massive, unfocused database every time.

Go All-In on Asking Questions

Most salespeople don’t ask enough. Questions are the ultimate shortcut to unlocking what buyers really want and the outcomes they care about. Frank summed this up perfectly:

“ASK means you Always Seek Knowledge.”

Survey your buyers. Call past clients. Don’t be afraid of hearing no, instead focus on the yes that could be just one question away.

Mindset Over Mechanics

Desperation has a scent. Top salespeople work enough opportunities to avoid attachment to the outcome of any one deal. When volume is healthy and outreach is value-driven, sellers avoid coming across as needy and replace that with confidence and genuine curiosity.

Sales isn’t about pushing products or filling quotas. It’s about building relationships, providing value, and becoming the resource buyers trust whenever their need arises.

Takeaways

• Lead by understanding the buyer’s timeline, not the seller’s.
• Focus on intent, not just interest.
• Stand out with creativity and value, not volume.
• Filter your list to prospects where you solve a real problem.
• Ask more questions Ask BETTER questions.

The sellers who win are those who become students of their buyers. Sales is about helping buyers buy, not making them buy.

Mark Hunter :
It’s time we talk the buyer’s journey. Hey, too many salespeople are guilty of trying to sell on the seller’s journey. It’s the buyer’s journey that matters. And it’s a level of confidence. With me today, Frank Kitchen. He’s going to unpack it. He’s got a wealth of experience in sales, customer service, leading and sharing with sales teams, helping them get to the next level. Why am I talking? The show begins right now.

Mark Hunter :
You’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you, as a salesman, sell with confidence and integrity. And now here’s your host. Do you know what your buyer’s journey looks like? Okay, Frank, help unpack it for us with me today. Frank Kitchen csp. That’s certified speaking professional. This guy knows how to communicate. Thank you for joining me. So let’s dive right into it.

Mark Hunter :
The buyer’s journey. What do you want to share?

Frank Kitchen :
Well, today is, you know, obviously, we’re here talking about sales, but as you said, we’ve gotten to transactional world. We forget about, you know, sales, all about relationships, and we think about too much of ourselves versus, as you said, truly understanding what the customer, the client, potential client is going through. And the better we can understand them, the better we can close that sale.

Mark Hunter :
Oh, I love where you’re going with this, because this is the whole thing. The buyer’s journey has to have a level of intent. I mean, they may show interest, but they have to have intent. How do we really understand? Because, again, you’ve had the chance working with so many organizations over the years. You do an extensive amount of traveling. How do you begin to tell when? Okay, there’s more than just interest, but there’s intent.

Frank Kitchen :
Oh, interest and intent. I mean, I won’t even go before we get to that part is, you know, as a speaker, we’re always reaching out to people. I’ve got my team helping out, and they go, oh, man. It’s like, you know, let’s go find a thousand leads. And he goes like, well, you could find those, but we need to understand when their booking window is. So when you talk about going to intent, we have to know when they intend to actually start looking for the sales. I mean, it’s similar to the holidays here in the United States. I’m not really trying to sell Christmas trees right now in March.

Frank Kitchen :
Really?

Mark Hunter :
Oh, come on.

Frank Kitchen :
Come on. So there’s no intent. We know that intent, when people start to look, really starts to happen during the fall. So no matter what form of sales you’re in, you really have to understand from the buyer’s perspective when their eyes are open or when they’re starting to look for your product or service.

Mark Hunter :
Okay, now you said something very, you know, said you get a thousand leads, and I think salespeople can wind up with more leads than they know what to do with. But all they are is really just names. They are just names. And this whole thing of interest and intent. In other words, they may be interested. I may be interested in Christmas trees here. We’re recording this in March. That doesn’t mean anything.

Mark Hunter :
Doesn’t mean anything. What are techniques that you’ve used or you’ve seen used or you, you help organizations in helping customers understand intent.

Frank Kitchen :
So as you said, the intent. Let’s just go back to the whole Christmas tree analogy. Well, we can go. Whether we use AI Google, talking to our friends, like, hey, you know, when you hear somebody, I always like using the word win because if is a word of doubt. So I always will say, you know, once again, word choice. When, hey, when you’re looking for a Christmas tree, let me know. But if we know there’s a thousand people out there who are looking for Christmas trees, we may enter them into our database, our CRM, you know, whatever it is. But we start to understand, it’s like, okay, we might send out an email just saying, hey, it’s like, when do you start looking? You know, we start asking questions versus trying to close a sale.

Frank Kitchen :
Right off the bat, you want to understand who you’re working with. And many of the groups may write back, we don’t start looking for Christmas trees until September. I might respond back going, well, hey, be on the lookout for an email or a phone call from me in September. And jokingly, there may be an email that shows on September 1st going, hey, guess what? It’s that time of year. Time to start thinking about your Christmas tree. Still not trying to close the cell, but just trying to remind the people or just spark their interest or an intent that, hey, you know what? It’s going to be close to that time to get that tree of which I know, okay, October, November, that’s when they’re really ready to go. But the idea is, let me at least be in their thought pattern, in their sphere of just, you know, thoughts of, you know what? When I’m ready for one, I’m going to go to Frank. It’s not the first sell is to close the cell.

Frank Kitchen :
I mean, it’s like trying to go out on a date and tell the person, it’s like, well, hey, I want to marry you on the first date. No, we’re still trying to understand who that person is, what their thought pattern is, what’s their likes or dislikes. And I think that’s the big piece of the sales is do we truly understand one is, you know, the buyer. But do we understand what that buyer’s, you know, wallet looks like when they’re ready to buy, what their calendar events? And as I work with different teams and train them is, that’s the first question to go is like, hey, we’re not trying to close the cell on the first conversation. We’re just trying to get them. One is to know who we are and get them to start to trust us.

Mark Hunter :
Okay, now it feels like you’re running a little counter, and I like where you’re going with this. Surveys love to say that the customer doesn’t want to reach out till they’re 67% of the way through the buying process before they want to reach out to a salesperson. You’re really saying you’re trying to get ahead. You’re trying to get way up front to be part of that buying process right from the beginning.

Frank Kitchen :
Yeah.

Mark Hunter :
How do. How do I go about understanding?

Frank Kitchen :
Okay, well, let me. Let me slow down. And I said, I’m going to use this from a professional speaker standpoint and from what I’ve experienced when I’ve talked to people, when I’ve trained sales teams, I’ve worked in retail and corporate, I go, when we’re trying to close that cell right off the bat or, you know, for a speaker, if the conference is in April and right now it’s March, and I call like, hey, do you want to get your speaker? I look desperate when I get ahead of the game, as you said, at 67% and go, hey, you have a conference in 2027 with my last name, I joke around. I was like, I’d love to be on your menu of speakers to consider it’s a different approach. While everybody else is saying, buy me, buy me. I’m just saying, hey, I’d love to be a resource or can I share some information with you? I’m working to educate that client. Then when it becomes time to actually go to the point where we understand, oh, they’re going to start looking at this date or time, they’re more than likely to open my email, take my phone call, because I didn’t come in desperate right off the bat trying to make a sale. I just came in offering my hands like hey, I’d like to know you better.

Frank Kitchen :
Let me introduce myself. So I want them to know who I am first before I try to go in for the kill.

Mark Hunter :
So you’re saying that salespeople should be way out in front?

Frank Kitchen :
Yes. Okay.

Mark Hunter :
Now, does this wind up creating too much activity for salespeople? Because, again, I gotta chase so many people just to try to find out where dates are or where. Where their need might be.

Frank Kitchen :
Well, what’s your definition of too much activity? Because, man, there’s a lot of groups out there where they’re thinking, okay, it’s just going to be one phone call or one email. So anything more than one they think is too much activity. Not understanding in a sales process, and I’m sure you’ve got the facts and the figures, how many times we have to touch that group before they ever recognize or consider us. So during that piece is. I was, you know, when I used to work with my students, I used to work at a college. I go, let’s study to see what everybody else is doing. And they do that. I’m like, okay.

Frank Kitchen :
And then once we study what everybody else is doing, I’m like, okay, let’s do the opposite. Because everybody’s reading the same sales books, going through the same pitch. I want to do something different to stand out from the crowd. So if everybody’s trying to sell you right off the bat, and I come in with, you know, let’s call it a funny email, or in the case of speaking, I’ll be like, hey, here’s five ways to pick out your next speaker. I didn’t say you had to book me. I came with it with a different approach. And those five things may be the five things that I do. So when they go do a little bit of research on me, it’s like, oh, wait, he does those five things.

Frank Kitchen :
So now it feels like it’s their choice or their decision versus me trying to force them into something.

Mark Hunter :
So you’re putting information out to the customer, allowing them to make it. So in order for you to do this, you got to feel very comfortable and you got to have enough opportunities that you can draw on, because otherwise, I mean, if you’re only chasing one lead, one opportunity, that’s when. That’s when you feel desperate. Yeah, right. Yep.

Frank Kitchen :
So. And as you said, everybody talks about pipeline, but, you know, I’m the believer of as we’re looking to close sales or get sales, as you said, if it’s just the list, that’s not really a lead. That’s just the list of names are going to with my team. The way we go and do it is like, well, hey, we can go look for this list, but I’d like to go ahead and filter that list down to maybe 100. 100 people who I know may want to book my services. Of which out of 100, we do the numbers. Like, my wife came to me the other day. She helps out.

Frank Kitchen :
She’s on the team. She goes, well, if we find 100 who may be interested in you, she’s like, and 10 actually pick up the call and then we close one. She’s like, okay, that’s one out of 100. So she’s like, if we want to get 20, then we need to go. So we start to do the math. But everybody can’t be our customer. But everybody may know somebody who could be our customer. So if we can go to this point of trying to educate people about what we do, then that could lead those people to referring.

Frank Kitchen :
Because they may not book us, but they might hear friends like, oh, I need a speaker on X, Y and Z. Oh, wait, I heard this guy had sent me some information and it wasn’t. He was trying to close me or sell, which that throws a lot of people off where it’s like, wait, there’s no thing saying buy here, go and do. Because that’s what everybody else is doing. And we know what the sales pitches look like in emails in the subject lines. We know what it looks like with the phone calls. So I’m going like, why am I going to try to be like everybody else when I can be something a little different?

Mark Hunter :
Talking about that, I got an email today, I said, and if we’re. I want to bounce this to the top of your list. And that just screams salesperson trying to sell me something. And she was. And it’s like, I saw the email the first time. It was pathetic. Don’t try to balance it up because now you’re just telling me you are really pathetic and really desperate. So again, what you’re doing is you’re taking a totally different approach.

Mark Hunter :
You’re trying to provide information, which I think is spot on. Now I want to dive into something else because the whole thing is around what I refer to as the icp, your ideal customer profile. Because again, I come up, I phone book. I don’t think they even make them anymore. But you can get a list of 10,000 names. Doesn’t mean anything but understanding who you serve best. What are strategies that salespeople can use to really understand who is it that they serve best and who should. Where should they focus their time?

Frank Kitchen :
Well, I know I’m preaching to the choir, but, you know, we call it, you know, our ideal avatar. So the idea is like, who has the problem that you solve? And more importantly, of those people where you can solve their problem, who’s willing to pay for it? And a lot of it takes research. And the beauty today is with technology and AI, we can go through and filter out a lot of those processes. But if I’m going to share right now, you know, I’ve got a team. It’s a team of, you know, three of us. And we may find a conference. So we find a conference like, okay, well, the first thing we’re going to go do is, okay, do they have a keynote slot available? So we’ll go through and we’ll research the conference the year before. Okay, so we researched the year before and it says Mark Hunter was the conference.

Frank Kitchen :
It’s like, oh, well, we know Mark Hunter is a paid speaker. I can go research your website now. Once again, a lot of people like, oh, my God, this takes so much work. Well, I’d rather do that work now before I send out an email or make a phone call. So, okay, so Mark Hunter. So I might go do some research. Well, what’s Mark Hunter’s speaking fee? I can go look that up. Or if I know Mark, I can reach out and say, hey, this event here, was it a good event or a poor event? Did they only want sales or do they want professional development? So I’m doing all the research because I need to understand, one is what I have an expertise for.

Frank Kitchen :
And then number two, does that client need that expertise? And if we start to go through and recognize that it’s not a good fit for us, then they’re not going to go into our sales system. They’re not going to really get the phone call. We have to have a good understanding of one is what that client wants and then what we provide. And I think that’s the difficult part for a lot of people when they read the sales books and the videos is they’re just going to go call up anybody and everybody. It’s like, hey, my buddy calls it the double sale. Do you have an event? No. You should have an event. Okay.

Frank Kitchen :
Then it’s like, well, now that you have an event, you should book me. And it’s just as you said, it looks like desperation, you know, through there where our group will reach out. It’s 2026 right now, and they’ll reach Out. And it’s funny about being a professional. There’s an event in April, so we’ll reach out to that group and like, hey, we understand your conference is coming up here in April. When will you start looking for your speakers for your April conference in 2027? That completely blows people’s mind.

Mark Hunter :
Yes.

Frank Kitchen :
Now, one of two things can happen. Number one is if they’re behind this slow on the, you know, momentum or whatever, they’re gonna be like, oh, we don’t have a speaker yet. Can you share your information? Or number two is they’re like, oh, we don’t start looking till June. They just gave me the information. They look in June. We’ll put that in our system and schedule an email. And then, like you said, the email will come back. It’s like, hey, you at AM I.

Frank Kitchen :
Am I being the subject line? You asked me to contact you.

Mark Hunter :
What?

Frank Kitchen :
That’s different, you know, and the whole piece is, like I said, from my experiences, it’s about being different. The human. I. The human, you know, just attention span. We’re always looking for something different. But it’s funny, as we start to study, people listen to your podcast, you may have a guest come on here and be like, I’m going to do it exactly their way. No, don’t try to, you know, repeat what they’re doing. Learn from what they’re doing and apply it into a unique way that works best for you.

Mark Hunter :
Okay. What? I love what you just said because this whole thing you went through, the example that you use in your business as a professional speaker, but the same strategy, you. You got to tweak it. You got to works for anybody. Because what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to call down your list to where these are the ones that have the highest potential and are worth my effort to be going in. And that’s absolutely key. There’s something else that I know you do because, again, you’re focused on the outcome. And this is where, I think so many salespeople fall down.

Mark Hunter :
Your customer could care less about your product or your service. They could care less. What they want is they want to get their problem solved. Either want to solve a problem or create a game. It’s one of the two. Generally, it’s solving a problem. That’s what you have to focus in on. It’s not your product or your service.

Mark Hunter :
And that, I know, is what you do because I’ve watched you. You really focus in on creating an outcome. How can salespeople understand with clarity what a customer’s outcome is that they’re looking for.

Frank Kitchen :
That is the great question that everybody always has to struggle with. But the thing is, as you said, we have to stop focusing on ourselves and we have to focus on that client. And sometimes it may be something as simple as sending out a survey to these potential clients, asking like, hey, what are some of your challenges right now? What are some of your struggles? There’s some groups, I’ve seen it, where they’ll write, it’s like, hey, how much would you pay to have this problem solved? I mean, we always have focus groups. With any other businesses out there, why can’t we do a focus group as a salesperson? So literally, like, you know, when I first started speaking, I wrote to people like, hey, it’s like, you know, you’ve seen me before. What problem do you think that I solve? And they actually gave me the answer. So I was able to put that into my marketing, into my scripts. When I reach out to people, I mean, we’re afraid to ask. And me and my buddy, we made it years ago.

Frank Kitchen :
We said, ask means you always seek knowledge. As salespeople, we have to get better at asking questions. The more questions that we ask, the more information we get. We’re in a point where we try to talk first versus just sitting back to ask a question and listen. And many times the people will give us the answers that we want.

Mark Hunter :
Oh, that is a mic drop moment. I love that. Ask. I love that. Okay, explain that. Ask. What does that stand for again? Go ahead and say it.

Frank Kitchen :
Always seek knowledge. The most successful people in the world ask lots of questions. And the best salespeople in the world ask lots of questions.

Mark Hunter :
Yes, they do. And this is what so many salespeople are afraid to do. They’re afraid to ask questions. And I love also what you said, ask your customers. And this, this thing I tell this of salespeople. Call your last 10 customers, ask them, how did you. How did you benefit from what it is that I shared with you, what it is that I sold you? And you’ve got to get clarity, and that’s. That’s going to shape you in terms of the outcomes.

Mark Hunter :
And now I gotta just develop the questions I need to be asking future customers to begin getting them to share what it is that they’re looking for. But I love the premise of asking more questions. Why do you think salespeople are afraid to ask questions?

Frank Kitchen :
Well, I say a lot of people are afraid to ask questions because they’re afraid of the. No, but when I’m working with sales groups. I explain to people, it’s like when we ask questions, we either stay in the same spot or we move forward. We never lose ground. So if I said, hey, Mark, you know, can I come out and work your team? And you say, no, guess what? I’m in the same spot. If you say, yes, then, okay, I closed the deal. Asking questions. All you can do is move forward.

Frank Kitchen :
And obviously, we’ve got a good friend, Lois Kramer. I love it when she shared it. And Lois goes, every time you ask a question, you risk a yes. But our mindset is always set to, we’re expecting a no. And it’s like, stop thinking, you know, about what you don’t want and start to focus on what you do want. You know, I’ve got a buddy who studies, you know, neuro linguistics and, you know, the brain. And he goes, whatever we focus on, we 10 times it. So if you’re thinking, oh, man, I don’t want to know.

Frank Kitchen :
You’re going to do everything within your body language. The way you speak. I tell people, it’s like, you know, what you think your mind and your body will follow. So if you’re thinking about, I’m going to get a no, then that’s what’s going to happen with your actions and people will be able to see it or hear it. But if you’re thinking about getting a yes and your body 10 times it, there’s gonna be a smile on your voice. There’s gonna be, you know, some fun and energy. You’re not gonna sound desperate. Hey, Mark, my name’s Frank.

Frank Kitchen :
I just wanted to find out some more information on your conference in June. Okay, what do you need to know? Have you secured your keynote speaker yet? Yes, we have. Oh, awesome. Have a great conference. But can I ask you one more question, Mark? Sure, Frank. What’s the question? When do you start looking for speakers for the next year? I’d love to be on your menu. I know my last name’s Kitchen. Oh, we start looking here.

Frank Kitchen :
All right, awesome. And can I ask you one more question? It’s like, yeah. Did you see the big thunderstorm that’s going on in the East Coast? Thunderstorm? Snow. Like, yeah. I was like, I live in your area. I would love to be your backup just in case something bad happens. I could be your backup just in case your speaker can’t make it. Oh, awesome, Frank.

Frank Kitchen :
So, hey, thanks so much. I’ll reach back out to you in June like you asked. I don’t want to bombard you with Emails or phone calls like all these other salespeople do. Oh, hey, thanks, Frank, for understanding what I go through. All right, have a great day.

Mark Hunter :
See, what you just did was you entered into a conversation of helping them. And I always say our mindset going into a sales call predetermines the results we get coming out of it, period. An example I love to use is comes out of nascar and a NASCAR driver. If you are looking at the wall, you will drift towards the wall, and the wall creates a lot of trouble. A wall creates a lot of trouble. And that’s the whole thing. Once you get that, that. No, I’m gonna get thinking it.

Mark Hunter :
I’m gonna get thinking it. So, wow. Absolutely great conversation. And I do love your last. What was your last name before you changed it to Kitchen?

Frank Kitchen :
Bedroom. So bedroom.

Mark Hunter :
Oh, that’s cool.

Frank Kitchen :
People are sleeping on the job, so I just had to change things up.

Mark Hunter :
I see. Hey, we’ve been talking today with Frank Kitchen csp. Absolutely dynamite on the speaking circuit. Frank, how do people get in touch with you?

Frank Kitchen :
There’s only one of me out there. So if they just go to frankkitchen.com, you’ll find a lot of information on me on there or just check me out on LinkedIn at. Frank Kitchen. So it’s spelled just like the room in your house. K I, T, C, H, E, N. I love that.

Mark Hunter :
Anyway, thank you so much for joining us. You’ve been listening to the Sales center podcast. Two episodes a week, one like this, where we do a deep dive with a subject matter expert. Frank certainly fits that bill. Second episode is just me, where I unpack a single topic. Hey, would you do me a favor? Leave me a review on your favorite podcast app. Because again, it’s really how we spread the word by the more reviews we get, whether it be on Spotify, whether it be on Apple, Music, whatever. Hey, the whole goal is to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible.

Mark Hunter :
And I think we did that here today. I’m Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Great selling.